Sandbagged by sandbags

Marijane Stong

Marijane Stong is in the Skate Canada Hall of Fame. For a long time Stong worked extremely closely with Scott and Tessa, particularly during Tessa's battle with exertional compartment syndrome. She's been a respected coach consultant.

Here's Stong's relevant quote about Scott and Tessa from the crica Worlds 2009 clip below, referring to Tessa's time away after exertional compartment syndrome surgery:

"All the time that she was ailing and she was doing her rehab, they worked every day in Tessa's apartment on little things like the lifts - they put the music on, they play with the expression, they did everything imaginable to try to be in really good shape while she got the legs working again. So it wasn't - I mean when they were off, they weren't just off, they were continuously working.

And they had a very wise way of training when they came back."

 Marijane Stong                    

The period to which Stong is referring is the infamous rift they get melodramatic about in their book.

The clip:

But? I thought the whole time Tessa was ailing in London Scott was in Canton skating with sandbags?

You mean Scott was together with Tessa the whole time?

Clearly Stong had not been through Debbi Wilkes' Seminar for Spoon Fed Spin.

I'm crushed this didn't happen.*

What Stong describes makes sense of course. It's unrealistic that a team desperate to compete in Vancouver would not speak or see each other nor communicate in any way for two months in the run-up to their first competition of the critical pre-Olympic season. They were due to reveal a strategically conceived, innovative new program at Canadians. They'd missed the Grand Prix season and would be heading to Worlds behind everybody else. All else aside - such as the fact that there was no estrangement, the fact that Tessa rushed her recovery, the fact that she and Scott were in a long-term committed relationship, the fact that they made a joint television appearance at Skate America mid-recovery - an Olympic-track dance team letting that happen just prior to a championship is not going to happen.

Scott and Tessa had two stories. In the first - the 2009 rendition -  Scott trained with sandbags and hockey sticks while Tessa stayed in touch from London, cheering him on and consulting on progress, occasionally apparently able to see him train somehow (He is fabulous! said Tessa). And of course, they grew even closer when she came back.

In Version 2, circa 2010-2011, each was clueless about what was going on with the other. Scott kept expecting her back sooner (the most ridiculous spin of all), but basically it was like each had dropped off the face of the earth where the other was concerned, so when she returned to Canton, no work had been done and on top of that, they were estranged and remained estranged for a year.

Whew.

I'd like to know what's happened to commentators like Stong. Intelligent, not formulaic, not reciting cheesy soundbites, not speaking of the individual skaters in terms of the image stereotype Skate Canada wants to promote. Not talking down to the audience.

She's a throwback. Even though she's very home team, she sounds like an adult. P.J. Kwong, whom I do like, sounds mechanical in comparison, and as if she's pitching to a much stupider crowd.

“Cathy's lies were never innocent. Their purpose was to escape punishment, or work, or responsibility, and they were used for profit. Most liars are tripped up either because they forget what they have told or because the lie is suddenly faced with an incontrovertible truth. But Cathy did not forget her lies, and she developed the most effective method of lying. She stayed close enough to the truth so that one could never be sure. She knew two other methods also -- either to interlard her lies with truth or to tell a truth as though it were a lie. If one is accused of a lie and it turns out to be the truth, there is a backlog that will last a long time and protect a number of untruths.”

John Steinbeck, East of Eden        

I went looking for the above quote, that I remembered from East of Eden, because it's a good description of manipulative lying. Scott and Tessa lie with animation and a lot of earnest-seeming embellishment. I can never figure out if this is as contemptuous as it seems or just disconnect - some idea that if they're nice and understanding about things it is a nicer way to lie. Maybe if you throw down enthusiastic exclamation points on fb while baiting fans it's a nicer way to be a tool. But still, Team VM borrows a lot of very meant-to-be-subtle, sophisticated lying techniques and wreaks hell with the execution. Typical Skate Canada - ambition outflanks competence.

And there's Tessa patting the public on the head and saying she wants couples in movies together too.**  How obnoxious. But maybe she doesn't see it that way - maybe to her it takes away some of the sting of lying.
_________________________
*Actually, while looking for sandbag gifs, I came across a million images of athletes - both male and female - using them in training. Yet - "Imagine - sandbags!" was presented to us as some miraculous creative innovation and extreme dedication.

**Not to mention this ignores that people want them together based more on off-ice behavior than skating performance.

Maybe Next Time Scott Checks WebMd.com

The Rift Between Virtue and Moir:  Erosion of Trust and Year-Long Estrangement Stemming from Tessa's Failure to Return to Olympic Level Figure Skating Training Sooner than Immediately After 2008 Compartment Surgery That Sliced Open the Fascia in Her Legs in Four Places.

RIFT THOUGHTS:

In their recently published book, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir tell us they didn't communicate at all for the two months she was gone recovering from her 2008 compartment surgery.  They confess this  absence of communication led to a nearly year long estrangement that persisted into their Olympic season.

Setting aside this story is belied by video evidence and every interview they gave at the time, also that Marianne Strong indicated Scott spent much time at Tessa's apartment in London working on expression while she recovered, also that they previously claimed to have texted and phoned constantly, and most of all, that they continually expressed how the experience made them respect, trust and appreciate each other even more, enabling them to win Nationals and get on the Worlds podium with nearly no training ...

It also means they choreographed Mahler and Farrucas in the summer of 2009 while behaving as virtual strangers, all stemming from Scott's upset with Tessa's failure to return to training from leg surgery in under 6-8 weeks.  After psychological counseling, they finally reconciled and so were able to be as one in time for Vancouver.

(Could they have patched things up faster by taking an IQ test, checking for water on Scott's brain, or cracking open an Anatomy 101 text and turning to the part that says "SLICED SHIN FASCIA = FIGURE SKATING HURTS"? )

Compartment surgery means "releasing" the muscle compartments in the leg so the muscle can expand. "Releasing" means slicing open the fascia and leaving the raw slices to heal while they simultaneously expand for the muscle.  So, ouch.

Contrary to how the story was presented, this isn't an uncommon condition in elite level athletes who use their legs with intensity.  The customary prognosis, not to mention ordinary logic, indicates this is painful, and two months is not time enough to heal up and get back to Olympic level figure skating training.  By these common indicators, Tessa's return in early December was rushed. Indeed, at the time, and after the season's conclusion, the team acknowledged  it was rushed.

But consistency plays no part in the many historical revisions presented by Scott and Tessa. Today, they earnestly inform us that in the ever-inspiring world of Canadian sports medicine, a compartment surgery patient can be expected to be healed up and ready for elite, Olympic level figure skating training a whole lot sooner than six to eight weeks later, an amazing assumption by a group we're told took a year to diagnose it in the first place, and nearly a year to figure out a second surgery was needed months after her pain persisted. (For contrast, a US lacrosse player swiftly diagnosed herself).

We're told Tessa's failure to return until early December created continual disappointment in Scott. They tell us now that return dates were set for sooner, Scott's hopes would be crushed, and so not until a whole two months after surgery did she get her ass to Canton and thus was the damage done and trust broken.