#I LOL'd at Scott's oops

[saucylittlesmile]

Interview with Scott Livingston.  Please excuse any typos or errors on my part.  I did omit some of the transitional language (um, like, etc) and some of the reaction laughs, and there were times when Scott, in particular, would say something that would sound like agreement while T was talking but I would miss the exact words.

SL: Okay, hi everybody.  Scott Livingston here for Culture is Queen Reconditioning HQ.  I am very lucky to have two people I get to work with all the time, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who are wonderful skaters in ice dance and they have won a gold medal and a silver medal and are going for another gold coming up this next February in the next Olympics that are to come.  So I asked them to come today, spend some time talking with me talking about culture.  Um, but what I really want to talk about and prefaced before we got together was the concept of what it takes to win a gold medal.  And the reason that I want to talk about it, and what I sort of talked to [Tessa] about on the table was, everybody has this picture of goal, and you get to the goal and everything is going to be wonderful and you did it, and so then what was if feeling like afterwards.  So I sort of want to take apart through a couple of different questions, first of all, what does it take to win that gold medal, and then after you do it what that feels like, and then we'll go around the circle after that.  But the  one is, what do you think it really takes, when you think of the things that you had to do, you had to commit to, to make yourselves win that gold medal, what does it take?

Scott: That's a tough question, and I think that when we think back to 2010, there were so many firsts for us.  We had never been world champions, we'd never been to an Olympic games, so in a lot of ways leading up to 2010, we weren't sure what it takes, so we had to rely on different mentors - Marnie McBean, David Pelltier - to kind of guide us in a way.  And I think in 2010, we were fantastic skaters, and we knew that we wanted to win at all costs, and I think that's what really got us through, we just found a way.  I remember Tessa's quote for the year was, "I don't know how, but we just have to win the Olympics in February."  And I think kinda that faith was a big key to our success, but I think when we look back, we were such -- our strength was in our skating, and not so much the team around us.

Tessa:  Also, I think even from a young age, we made incredible sacrifices.  We moved away from home at 13 and 15, um, we didn't do prom, movies, sleepovers, parties, things like that.  I'm not sure I thought of it as a sacrifice at the time, because we just wanted to be the best novice skaters we could be, we wanted to be the best junior skaters we could be, but looking back, I'm impressed that as teenagers -

Scott: Right.

Tessa: - we did that and wanted that, there's almost a disconnect, and I think, just that internal drive, it was within us, we were competitors, and early on, we were willing to do things our competitors weren't, which was probably a bit of a differentiator.

SL: So what do you think those things were, when you think back -- was it more hours on the ice, was it a greater commitment to what you reflected on when you were on the ice... like, how do you differentiate what the other skaters were doing and what you did?

Tessa: We observed a lot.  And we committed to working differently as a team, more efficiently, more effectively, in a more supportive partnership, at least in comparison to those around us.  We had the opportunity to train with many different types of teams and I think for us, a lot of the root of our success has been the foundation we've built our partnership on, and that's not something we take lightly; we're still working on that to this day.  But that really, kind of set the tone, and then we both knew that we were committed to this one common goal, and then every single day, we didn't doubt that we were each showing up to give everything to invest in that one purpose.  So I don't think that we were bogged down by too many other thoughts, you know, we weren't fighting, we weren't battling in other ways, it was just, 'this is our goal and how do we get there'.

Scott: It was very clear.

Tessa: Pretty simple.

SL:  So to play off that, because that plays off the idea that somebody has a particular goal, maybe it's losing weight, maybe it's building a business, whatever you're doing, it doesn't necessarily have to be a gold medal, but then you get it, then what?  Like, did you feel, the way you expected to feel and what changed for you after?

Scott: I think the magical thing about 2010 is that it felt exactly how I thought it would feel.  I dreamt of that moment, being on the podium together, being in that position together, being in Vancouver being surrounded by Canadians, and it was exactly how I dreamed it would be, and I think that's pretty rare in life.  And the medals, I remember when they put the medals around our necks it was just as heavy as I thought it was going to be, and at Worlds they put the medal, and it was like [Scott mimes a very light medal], this is it? and we did all this?  But it felt right, and seeing all the school kids was a great experience, but then re-setting after that was a lot different than I thought.  There was a huge come-down period, what we called an Olympic hangover, that lasted probably for the better part of a year and a half, it was a lengthy time to try and get re-motivated.  And going into those next four years -- we always say we learned more in those years between 2010 and 2014 than in our whole career before that.  And we were trying to reinvent ourselves, trying to push ourselves to skate to different music, to move differently, to try and figure out what was behind Tessa's leg injuries, so there's a whole bunch that went on in those four years.

Tessa:  But interestingly, while that Olympic experience lived up to our expectations, it didn't change us -

Scott: [?]

Tessa:  - and I'm not sure we had talked openly about that before the Olympic games, but there is some anticipation that you have this perfect recipe, this quick fix to success, or that you'll just be happier, that people will treat you differently, but like -

Scott: Yeah.

Tessa: - I don't know what the expectation really is, but nothing did, like nothing really changed, because the people that were in our lives on a daily basis remained the same, we were just Tessa and Scott -

Scott: Hopefully.

Tessa: (laughs) Yeah, and I remember that, just to fast forward to the second time we won the world championships in Nice, France, 2012, and we won the competition and there we were in the South of France, with a few days off, and nothing could be better, and I was sitting with my mom having lunch, and she looked over and I was just crying, bawling my eyes out, and she said, "What's wrong?" and I said, "It just didn't feel like I expected it to feel," so I think we do set ourselves up sometimes, and if there's one thing we could tell younger skaters, having had a bit of success, that it has to be about the process, that the feeling of getting the medals, that external validation, is nothing compared to gratification you get simply from hard work, or from chasing a goal...

Scott: Which brings us kind of  to 2014, because that's what we did exceptionally well, because now when we look back to 2014, I think that people think we're less excited because we're silver medalists, but the way that we prepared for that and how much we enjoyed the process, we really took in the experience, we only have fond memories of Sochi, and kind of being really in that Olympic experience and taking full advantage of it, I mean, that's priceless to us.

SL:  That's awesome.  You mentioned something about feeling the medal weight.  Did you guys see winning a gold medal before it happened, did you envision it, was it part of getting you there, seeing it?

Tessa: Seeing it.... and also falling flat on our faces and coming dead last was a vision -

Scott: Yes.

Tessa: - was something we had to deal with.  I think we saw every possible scenario, but the overreaching one was gold, and living through that, and trying to visualize everything, from the smell of the arena to the feeling when we'd walk in to the look we'd give each other before skating, all of that had been visualized so many times that it felt like we had lived it by the time we did go through the motions...

Scott: And then when we did live it, it felt normal, and we knew, as soon as we were in that venue, we knew.  I mean, we probably would have slept easier if we really knew, but we had that energy because we'd envisioned it so many times.

SL: So one of the things I want to try and transcend into, from what you're doing now, that helps someone that is in business or trying to achieve something, is now you've achieved these things now, just like someone who has taken a business to the next level, it's making money, how do you reframe it so again it's exciting, interesting, something you want to achieve and going back to the process, what's different now for now about the process than for you then?

Tessa: Well, one the critical things in evaluating our comeback, so to speak, was the why, and why are you doing this and what are your intentions and what are you hoping to get out of this, and once we realized that those intentions were totally pure.... I mean, it was for the love of the sport and to push ourselves and see how capable we are to skate differently... all those things just gave us so much room for growth in every different facet of our training, and that's what exciting for us.

Scott: I think the biggest reason we came back was.... we had success in our career, and I mean a lot of people thought why not just hang your hat on that, but I think in our minds, we hadn't explored our complete and full potential, and we have more to give, and when we watch tape - [laughs] which we don't do very often - of old programs, but when we do watch tapes, we just think, there's more than that, and we owe it to ourselves to at least try, and then also... just because we can, I mean we owe to to ourselves to try to live to our full potential, and we couldn't even dream of sitting at home on the couch while Canadian athletes march in Pyeongchang.

Tessa: It's funny, I'm just realizing now, that even after these next Olympics we're still going to feel that way -

Scott: I know.

Tessa: - you know, we're always going to be chasing that, here will be some void or feeling that, if only we'd tried this, or if only we could do this in our skating... I'm not sure we'll ever be fully satisfied, but I guess that's the nature of...

Scott: We'll be ready for four years.  [all laughing]

SL:  We'll see.  To finish then, I don't want to get into post careers, that's always an interesting question, but when you look at the things that you're learning as you go through your journeys, about how you've set yourselves up for success, do you feel there are two, three fundamentals you could leave people with, that you feel are intrinsic to success, like what you really have to do to commit yourself to that?

Scott: Well, I think one of the big things would be constantly evolving.  I mean what's so interesting about our story is that what won in 2010 wouldn't have won in 2014 and definitely won't win in 2018, and I know in 2014 I definitely thought we were better but wasn't quite good enough to win, but we're constantly --

Tessa: Better than ourselves in 2010.

Scott: Yes.  Yep.  Sorry, thanks for clearing that up [.....] [Tessa and SL laughing]  But that's what sports is, to me, constantly evolving, and you talked about getting that skill set that will help you in life, and that we're hopefully setting ourselves up, that we'll be able to problem solve and create a life for ourselves outside of sports.

Tessa: And I think that as athletes, 95% of feedback we get is constructive criticism, and we're constantly looking at sort of our faults, and being self-aware enough to realize building those things and making them strengths, and working on your weaknesses, you know, sometimes it's not fun, to face, but that can be a difference maker -

Scott: Absolutely.

Tessa: - and for us, building a team around us, that's given us a huge advantage, and a big edge, in so many ways, mentally, physically and emotionally.  You need the right people around you who lift you up, inspire you and you can kind of tap into as a resource, you know... we acknowledge that we are not experts in these fields so we need to bring in this team...

Scott: Well, and that's what's so cool... I mean, you have to be willing to do what your competitor is not.  Usually, what your competitor isn't willing to do, neither are you, so going into something we just learned last weekend [nudges T]....

Tessa: [laughing] But now we're preaching it.

Scott: But I mean, that's so important, and I think what we try and do, we're not completely successful by any means, but it's something we've focussed on and trying to do what our competitors won't and patch up our weaknesses.

SL: Process, not perfection.

Tessa: Totally.

Scott: [laughing] We know somebody who says that.

SL:  Well, I thank you both, this was awesome, lots of learning pieces, and thank you for taking the time.

Tessa: Thank you, Scott [Livingston].

[pause]

Scott: All right.

Tessa: That was a fun one.  I felt like we could talk forever.

SL: We could.

Tessa: [laughing] Did you mean to press record, or...?

SL: I did.  Thirteen minutes.