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Posted on Tue, Feb 2, 2010 : 11:05 p.m.

Michigan students and Olympic ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White enjoy rally

By Andrew Reid

DAVIS-WHITE.jpg

Meryl Davis and Charlie White pose in January after winning the ice dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. (Photo: Associated Press)

CANTON — A sign hung in the hallway to the main gym of the Summit on the Park facility. Decorated in red, blue and white and the famous Olympic rings logo, the glittery sign read, “GOOD LUCK, MERYL DAVIS & CHARLIE WHITE!”

A handful of the hundreds of people who attended a pep rally to honor the pair of local Olympian ice dancers, both juniors at the University of Michigan, lingered in the foyer of the building, clutching signed pictures. Some had small children, who all had Olympic rings painted on their cheeks and held balloons that event organizers gave them.

It was the last public event the duo plans on attending until the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver, choosing to spend the next few weeks with their families and perfecting their routine.

“It was really exciting,” Meryl Davis said of the event. “The Canton community has really embraced us, and my mom was a teacher (here) for 30 years. Great people, great community, so I was really excited to come out here.”

Event organizers, who were able to pull off the pep rally even with Davis and White’s jam-packed schedule, were excited to give the community — especially the kids — a chance to see real Olympians and drawn inspiration from them.

The duo has been on a whirlwind schedule since winning their second straight U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Spokane, Wash., in January, training at Arctic Edge Figure Skating Club in Canton and Detroit’s Figure Skating Club and getting ready for the Olympic routine, which is set to “The Phantom Of The Opera.”

“It’s been really crazy, a little bit hectic,” Charlie White said. “We just wanna go into the games with a clear head and compete as well as we can, but it’s been really fun.”

Davis and White are excited to Team USA in the Ice Dancing competition — and, as this year’s gold medal race is more wide open than it has been in a long time, the local duo has a shot at taking home the coveted award.

“I think we’ve got as good a chance as anyone,” Davis said. “This Olympics is really different than previous ones in our sport … There’s no clear favorite going in. There’s a lot of teams that could make a push for gold, and I think we’re one of them, so it’s a really exciting prospect.”

White said the gold medal will most likely come down to a five-team race: White and Davis, another American team, the Canadians, the Russians and the French. The Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were also present at the pep rally in Canton, but were not made available to the media for comment.

Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club skaters Evan Bates of Ann Arbor and Emily Samuelson of Novi finished third at the U.S. championships and also are headed to the Olympics. Bates is a Huron High School graduate.

White is studying anthropology at Michigan and Davis is still undecided. According to a January 2009 story in The Michigan Daily, Davis is a Delta Delta Delta sorority member and White has helped as a coach of the women’s club skating team.

And Davis and White are grateful that, through all of their hectic training, they’ve been able to stay close to home, in Canton and Ann Arbor.

“We feel really fortunate that we’re able to train in our home state,” Davis said. “We live 40 minutes away from our families, and U of M is really right down the road from such an amazing training facility, so we’re just really lucky.”

Andy Reid covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at andrewreid@annarbor.com.

Comments

a2cents

Wed, Feb 3, 2010 : 9:41 a.m.

Meanwhile elsewhere, in an effort to placate thrifty Republicans, the new federal budget eliminates funding for Olympic training camps. Indeed the Olympics are frivolous compared to...

a2roots

Wed, Feb 3, 2010 : 9:22 a.m.

Nice to see that you at least mention Bates and Samuelson. These kids train in ann Arbor, Bates went all through school in Ann Arbor and they both go to the UM and yet nothing of substance on this site or in the rag-paper about them. This is not to take anything away from White and Davis because they certainly deserve accolades but it would be nice if you focused on kids here in Ann Arbor as well.