Thought I'd come and post some thoughts, since I've just been doing a YouTube binge of Virtue and Moir programs through the years, missing the world championships this year like crazy.
I started out by watching some of my favourites — Olympic programs from 2010 and 2018, Valse Triste. Then I decided to segue over to Umbrellas of Cherbourg — boy did I not appreciate this program enough at the time. It is really stunning and put the world on notice that they were the new team to beat. I loved all the innovative lift positions bringing in "umbrella" shapes. It's really brilliant.
Then I decided to re-watch their programs from 2014 Olympics, which I don't do all that often due to the disappointment of them not winning. In 2014 I wasn't the biggest fan of their FD — I thought it wasn't as inspired choreography-wise as some of their other free dances (no, I didn't like Davis/White's program that year either; I thought Marina had lost her edge by then). But I have to say I now appreciate this program a lot more from the vantage point of 2020. Their expression of it was superb, and there were some really wonderful touches. But the star of the show was their short dance — man, that was genius. One of their best programs ever, I think. I could have loved a free dance by them to this music. It was just everything — elegant, classy, playful, sexy. The fact that they lost that portion of the competition to Davis/White is just highway robbery. It seems even more clear to me now than it did then. They were head and shoulders above the field in that program.
While I indisputably think that Virtue and Moir should have won gold in the individual event in 2014, I'm not one of those who thinks there was necessarily some kind of "fix". I just think that the judges had already decided on the placements before the event and gave their scores based on the last couple of years where sometimes Virtue/Moir had struggled to be clean, rather than what was danced that day.
But to anyone who doesn't often watch these programs due to feelings surrounding the event, they're really worth another viewing. There are a lot of great ice dancers in the field now, but I still miss these two — they were really something special. Maybe next I'll try Funny Face. Haven't watched that in a few years.