RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're going to turn our attention now to ice dancing, a sport that's gotten a lot of flak over the years and is often scoffed by those who think it shouldn't even be an Olympic event. And it's not a sport where the U.S. has necessarily shined. But today, we're going to look at a pair of skaters from Michigan whose athletic power and speed has got a lot of people taking notice and has them poised for a run at a gold medal. Quinn Klinefelter, of member station WDET, has this profile.
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QUINN KLINEFELTER, BYLINE: At the Arctic Edge skating rink, 30 miles northwest of Detroit, the team that's won every major ice dance competition for the past few years is leaving the ice separately. But Meryl Davis and Charlie White are never far apart for long.
CHARLIE WHITE: It's freaky, I mean, how often that we are just reading each other's minds and, like, say the same thing at the exact same time but...
MERYL DAVIS: Yeah it's a little weird. (Laughter) But it makes it easier.
KLINEFELTER: Their simpatico relationship has helped Davis and White become a record-setting force in ice dancing. They've won two world championships, five straight Grand Prix finals and an unprecedented six consecutive U.S. national titles, portraying everything from Bollywood dancing to Scheherazade. It's left even reserved skating commentators grasping for superlatives.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: If you're a figure skating fan, you may have been waiting for this moment. If you're just a sports fan, sit back and just appreciate the best in the sport at the moment.
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KLINEFELTER: The pair's graceful symmetry stems from a long journey. And while they've never been romantically involved, Davis says in a way, they've been childhood sweethearts since a skating coach saw them circling a rink by themselves two decades ago.
CHARLIE WHITE: You know, we were the right age for each other, the right size; and he thought maybe it would be fun to throw us together and see what we looked like. And, you know, we just were a perfect match, as perfect as an 8- and 9-year-old boy and girl could be.
DAVIS: Charlie was a couple ofmonths ahead of me, in terms of the ice dance world. And so when he was partnered up with, you know, someone who hadn't had any ice dance experience, he was a little bit...
CHARLIE WHITE: ...put off.
DAVIS: Irritated. But yeah...
CHARLIE WHITE: I was like, oh, she doesn't know what she's doing.
DAVIS: ...he had to take a couple steps back with me. But he got over it.
CHARLIE WHITE: It only lasted about a week, yeah.
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KLINEFELTER: It took a while for the White and Davis families to follow suit. White's mother, Jacqui White, says was a bit put off when young Charlie decided to enter a competition - and was soundly defeated.
JACQUI WHITE: He came running up to me and said, Mom, look! I won, I won! Does this mean I won? And I said, yes! And I said, let's go. (Laughter) Because I really felt like they were too young to feel like they lost.
KLINEFELTER: She says it also required a massive juggling act to parent four other children while still helping Charlie fulfill his dream.
JACQUI WHITE: Sometimes, I wanted a day off just to go shopping, or go to lunch with a friend. But I couldn't convince Charlie of it. I could just see how important it was to him. I mean, how many people do you know that are the best at what they do?
KLINEFELTER: Many skating experts also view White and Davis as the best, except for the 2012 World Championships and 2010 Olympics, where they lost to the Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Now, the Canadians train with White and Davis at the Arctic Edge rink, under the same skating coach. NBC Sports skating analyst Tracy Wilson, who won an Olympic bronze for ice dancing in 1988, says the two teams show such physical prowess it has helped cement the sport's reputation as a true athletic event.
TRACY WILSON: They're constantly measuring themselves against each other. And I think that's one of the reasons they've been able to - both teams - push the sport so far.
KLINEFELTER: It's already made White and Davis media darlings and marketable commodities, sponsored by half a dozen major companies. Yet, White vows that he and Davis won't be distracted by the glare of the spotlight.
CHARLIE WHITE: We've had a career where we've really lived in the moment. It hasn't mattered in the past how big the moment is. You know, we always kind of have the same approach.
KLINEFELTER: With that, the duo head for more practice en route to the rinks at Sochi.
For NPR News, I'm Quinn Klinefelter in Detroit.