Canadian figure skaters ready to emerge from shadow of vaunted 2018 team

In 2018, at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Pyeongchang, legendary ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir strapped on their skates for the final time at the Olympics.

Needing an all-time free-dance performance to secure gold, the Canadian duo delivered a stirring Moulin Rouge routine, vaulting them to the top of the podium, with a world-record score to boot.

"They are the greatest ice dancers of their generation, maybe of all time,” CBC Sports analyst Brenda Irving said in the wake of the performance that reverberated from coast to coast.

It remains the most recent Canadian Olympic gold medal in the sport.

Virtue and Moir’s triumph was one of four podium appearances for Canadian figure skaters in Pyeongchang. The immortal duo also helped Canada win team gold, while Kaetlyn Osmond and the pair of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford each claimed bronze.

Eight years later, Canada would be happy to leave with one medal at Milano Cortina 2026.

As it turns out, you don’t simply follow one golden generation with another.

The Milan team will be set at senior nationals, which begin Thursday in Gatineau, Que. Live coverage is available on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem beginning with the men’s short program at 4:45 p.m. ET.

Skate Canada high-performance director Mike Slipchuk said he has leaned on his 2018 experience to prepare the current group.

“For a lot of our planning, to get this team ready, I kind of reached back on 2018 just on process and things that we did this season leading in to help our athletes. And I feel we're in a good place, but like I said, it's gonna be a different Games,” he said.

Indeed, there does not appear to be any illusion of matching that four-medal haul.

The most optimistic projection for Canada — which did not reach a single podium at Beijing 2022 for the first time since 1984 — would be three medals, including Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in ice dance, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps in pairs and the team event.

“I do think that a lot of the success in 2018 can be attributed to the large investment that was made in sport leading up to the Vancouver Olympics,” said Poirier, who is set for his third Olympics alongside Gilles.

“A lot of the skaters were skating leading up to the 2010 Olympics, but there was so much investment in winter sport. And I think that was the kind of the after effect of all of that. But I think there's so many factors, and I think we're just really excited to be writing the new chapter for Team Canada.”