VANCOUVER, B.C. - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made history while Joannie Rochette won hearts.
A night after Virtue and Moir captured Canada's first Olympic ice dance gold medal, Rochette skated an emotional short program that would eventually propel her to the bronze in an Olympic Games figure skating competition that will forever be remembered for its tales of both triumph and tragedy.
Canada's figure skating team, one of the youngest ever assembled, rode an emotional roller-coaster to reach its goal of winning two medals in Vancouver, continuing the streak of podium performances for Canada that stretches back to 1984.
"It's been so up and down," said Skate Canada CEO William Thompson. "All the things you prepare for as you head into a Games, the one thing I can say that we never thought of was Joannie's situation."
The 24-year-old Rochette captured bronze less than a week after the sudden death of her mom Therese, mustering the emotional strength to finish with one of the finest weeks of skating in her career. Along the way, Rochette - whose surname in English means 'little rock' - captured hearts with her uncommon grace during the most difficult of days.
"She's handled this remarkably well," Thompson said. "I can't believe how strong she's been managing the whole thing, skating well, just a remarkable young woman."
"In six days, this whole situation happened, her mother passed away, she competed two programs at the Olympics, won a medal, did a gala, and then the closing ceremonies," added Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director. "It's just been surreal, the whole thing."
Reigning world champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea, who's coached by Canadian Brian Orser, won gold with a world-record score that left all the other skaters in her tracks. Mao Asada of Japan won the silver. But Rochette, competing under the most unimaginable pressure, was the big winner just by competing.
Skate Canada officials gave Rochette the option of pulling out of the Games, but she said she wanted to finish a journey that she and her mother began so many years ago.
"That's what my mother would have wanted me to do," Rochette said. "That's how she raised me. She was always by my side. She was my biggest fan, my best friend.
"I'm glad I did it, because in 10 years from now when the pain has gone away a little bit, I would have wished that I had skated here. I know that's what my mom would have wanted me to do."
Support flooded in for Rochette - singer Celine Dion and actor Jim Carrey were among the celebrities to wish her well.
"I don't know about owning the podium, but I think we own the world's hearts tonight," Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Chris Rudge said after Rochette's bronze-medal performance. "That young girl performed on a level that is beyond comprehension."
Rochette was presented with the Terry Fox Award for the grace she showed in overcoming obstacles, and she was named Canada's flag-bearer for the closing ceremonies in a fitting tribute to the courageous skater.
There was only pure joy for Virtue, 20, and Moir, 22, who became the youngest ice dancers to win Olympic gold, and snapped a stranglehold of European domination in the event that went back more than three decades. The two did it with an elegant and stirring free dance performance to Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 5," that left the crowd spellbound, and their breathtaking lift they nicknamed The Goose will go down as one of most enduring images of the Games.
Even more remarkable: they're only getting going. Thompson believes the young Canadians, who've been partners for 13 years, could dominate ice dancing for the better part of the next decade.
Patrick Chan arrived in Vancouver carrying the monstrous weight of Olympic pressure from a country that has never won Olympic gold in men's figure skating. But the 19-year-old reigning world silver medallist has had a topsy-turvy season that started with a bad bout of the flu, and continued with a calf injury that kept him off the ice for weeks. Then his coach Don Laws quit a month out from the Games.
The young skater had two shaky performances in his Olympic debut, and admitted he wasn't prepared for the enormity of the Games - especially one on home ice.
"I wish I had one more Olympics under my belt before I came here, this is kind of an overwhelming first Olympics," Chan said. "In the end, that's why I'm looking at Sochi (Russia in 2014) and see how that goes, but it's a long way.
"But I overcame this, this is like Mount Everest. I can overcome this, I can overcome anything else."
American Evan Lysacek won the gold, leaving Russia's Evgeni Plushenko - who came out of retirement for one last shot at Olympic glory - to settle for silver. The results prompted sniping from the Russian star about the lack of quads in men's sport, the latest chapter in the quad-versus-no-quad debate.
Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison battled nerves en route to a sixth-place finish in pairs, Dube falling on the triple Salchow that's been the bane of her existence in both the short and long programs.
On a night that saw four-time Olympians Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo finally capture gold after coming out of retirement - China's first ever gold in figure skating - Dube and Davison were left wanting.
"There's nothing else to say other than we're athletes, good skates happen and bad skates happen, good years happen and bad years happen," Davison said. "In the end we finished the program, we're not in an ambulance, we're alive, we had a great time skating in front of a Canadian audience, we didn't do what we wanted to do, but life goes on."
Almost as entertaining as the skating drama that unfolded were the costumes - some daring, some tacky, most glitzy. There were black corsets and pink tassels, feathers and sequins and plunging necklines.
American Johnny Weir was the hit of the men, skating his short program in black corset with plunging neckline laced up in pink neon, while Lysacek wore Vera Wang, an avant-garde all-black outfit with feathers at the wrists that conjured images of a raven.
The schmaltziest costumes however were saved for ice dancing. Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin arrived under a cloud of controversy for their original dance program that was meant to mimic Australian Aboriginal dancing, but received harsh criticism from Aboriginal leaders who called it 'cultural theft.' Their tasteless costumes included large plastic leaves and white body paint.
Skate Canada officials leave Vancouver pleased with their young team's performance and optimistic about a future that will see all the top skaters likely back for another Olympics. Canada won just one figure skating medal four years ago in Turin, Italy - a bronze from Jeffrey Buttle.
"I think we always felt that we had a shot at three (medals), but realistically to have all of your top contenders have a great Games is a little optimistic, so we always thought it would be two, we really felt we could get two," said Thompson.
What will linger with the team staff when they look back on these Games, is the way the skaters shone amid sometimes heartwrenching circumstances. When Rochette skated her short program, Virtue and Moir were in the stands to support their troubled teammate, turning down requests from sponsors and media a day after their gold-medal performance.
"For our team they're expected to be here for their teammates at all times, but that one, it was more of an emotional lift for all of them," Slipchuk said. "This was a tough situation, we have a lot of young skaters on this team that have never been faced with a situation like this, be it with a family member or anyone. There was a lot of lessons learned by everyone."
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