Scott Moir is an Olympic gold medallist, pairing with Tessa Virtue to create Canada’s most accomplished ice dancing partnership and the most decorated Olympic figure skaters in history. As part of the Special Olympics Canada Champions Network, he was a guest at the annual Limitless Gala fundraiser in Toronto last week.
Not many know that Moir started as a hockey player, growing up in Ilderton and playing with the Jets. We had the chance to catch up with him and reflect on his days in minor hockey playing in the OMHA and how he still has love for the game playing men’s league.
Before I figure skated, I was a hockey player. Back then there was a ‘get your third child free’ kind of a deal, and I was the youngest of three boys, so my parents just kind of threw me in when I was three years old. I played with the older kids and couldn’t really keep up. We used to rotate as goalies, and nobody could raise the puck, so my uncle just told me to lay down and I fell asleep while I was in the net and they had to come wake me up. It wasn’t really a glorious start.
That was always my first love, hockey. I always played for the Jets in my home town. The arena was in my backyard. I played until I was 15 years old and I moved away from home.
Mostly aggression. Just being able to attack the ice and take my space. It helps me a lot when I’m on practice. I joke with the guys who never played hockey that they don’t know where everybody else is on the ice, where in hockey you have to. There were a lot of things. Just to be more forward on your blade helps with figure skating.
I really feel like I’m the lucky one to be involved in Special Olympics. It’s the purest sporting environment that I’ve ever been around. The sense of fair play, camaraderie, sportsmanship, I’ve never seen anything like it in any sport. I always feel like we’re the ones taking the most out of these events.
When I was in Novice we won the OMHA West, that’s the highest we would go at that time. I can still remember the feeling of being on the team and the championship game and winning it and being on the ice for the game winning goal. That’s probably the big memory, that run, even at that age, something about playoff hockey, it still feels special.
I was always very lucky. I had Tessa as a teammate. I love team sports, I still play hockey. It’s all about being part of a team and serving a role. Sometimes you’re the star and sometimes you’re uplifting your teammates. That’s the part of team sports that I really love.
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