CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share USA TODAY Sports breaks down Monday's action in Sochi and looks ahead to the women's hockey gold medal game between rivals USA and Canada. USA TODAY Sports 
 
 The United States' Charlie White and Meryl Davis celebrate their ice dancing gold medal. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports) 
 
 SOCHI, Russia -- When Meryl Davis and Charlie White began skating together, she was so shy she couldn't even look at him, and coaches would have to put a sticker on his forehead so she'd have somewhere to look. He was annoyed as only a 9-year-old boy can be, forced to break someone new into a sport he'd already been doing for six months. 
 
 It's fitting, then, that the ice dancers would give the United States its first Olympic gold medal in a figure skating event other than singles. 
 
 Still together after 17 years, they've outlasted many marriages. They're family now as much as skating partners and friends, and for all their considerable skill, they don't win gold Monday night without the love and respect they have for one another. 
 
 "We've grown up together in every sense of the word," Davis said, "and I'm just so grateful that we were able to do it together." 
 
 Being Olympic champions wasn't the goal when Davis and White teamed up. How could it have been, when the United States was still considered a backwater in ice dance? 
 
 It would take a change in the judging system in the mid-2000s to make North Americans legitimate medal contenders, and it would take a rivalry with another team committed for the long haul, Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, to make Davis and White champions. 
 
 Virtue and Moir won the silver medal, their second of these Olympics. 
 
 RECAP: Entire ice dancing event 
 
 MEDAL TRACKER: Where USA stands now 
 
 
 
 "We learned a lot about ourselves as people that maybe you don't get chance to learn if you're not in the situations that we've been put into," White said. "The struggles, the rivalry, knowing that if you're not perfect you can forget about your dreams and that constant striving for perfection. 
 
 "You have to look in the mirror and figure out every day what it takes to get there. There's a lot of soul searching when you're at the top of the game, as the four of us have been. You mature a lot quicker under that pressure, and I think we did that." 
 
 Never moreso than over the last four years. 
 
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 The Canadians and Americans finished 1-2 in Vancouver. As gratifying as that silver medal for Davis and White was, it made them hungry for more. 
 
 But to get to the top of the podium, they would have to become a complete team, that near-perfect blend of art and athleticism that makes it seem as if they're truly dancing rather than skating on a sheet of ice. And the only way to achieve that was through long hours, gallons of sweat and a steadfast faith in each other and their coach, Marina Zoueva. 
 
 "It's taken the last four years of day-in and day-out practice and working with Marina and having her show us the way," White said. 
 
 The result was obvious, and not just because of the gold medals they now have. 
 
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 HOCKEY: USA women advance to gold-medal game 
 
 . 
 
 Skating to Scheherazade, Davis and White may as well have been mirror images. Every extension, every turn, every expression of emotion was perfectly matched. Nowhere was it more evident than in their twizzles. 
 
 The rotating turns are incredibly difficult. Try rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. Now try doing it in sync with someone else, and you get the idea. But Davis and White were so in sync they looked as if they were attached by invisible strings pulling them in the same direction. 
 
 They were energetic and powerful from the first note of their music to their last. When they finished, White was so spent he knelt on the ice for several seconds. When he finally rose, he buried his head in Davis' shoulder and managed to sum up their last 17 years with three simple words: 
 
 "I love you." 
 
 "It was the perfect moment," White said, "to express how grateful that I am to have her by my side." 
 
 PHOTOS: ICE DANCE COMPETITION IN SOCHI ||||| SOCHI, Russia -- Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dance gold medal Monday, the first Olympic title in the event for the United States. 
 
 Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, the 2010 champions, took silver. Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov captured bronze. 
 
 
 
 Davis and White won silver in Vancouver, but in the four years since they have overtaken the Canadians, their training partners in Detroit. 
 
 The Americans, the reigning world champs, scored 116.63 points in the free dance to finish with 195.52, 4.53 ahead of Virtue and Moir. 
 
 When the music from "Sheherazade" ended with White on a knee, Davis rested her head on his back in exhausted elation. The two started skating together in 1997 in Michigan, and on the biggest day of their career, they were nearly flawless. 
 
 "That in itself justified 17 years of hard work," White, 26, said. 
 
 
 
 As the music swelled over the final minute of the program, their feet were in nonstop motion yet every movement was intricately choreographed. Their lifts were a blur as White spun across the ice with Davis held aloft, their movements and expressions still fierce despite the draining demands of the performance. 
 
 As they told the story of the Persian king and the woman who enchants him, White was regal in purple velvet, Davis beguiling in a lavender dress with jewels shimmering on her midriff. 
 
 They now have one medal of each color after winning bronze in the new team event in Sochi. 
 
 
 
 Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States react in the results area after competing in the ice dance free dance figure skating finals at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) Vadim Ghirda, AP 
 
 "We have grown up in every sense of the word," Davis, 27, said of the partnership that took them to Olympic gold. 
 
 Fellow American skater Adam Rippon tweeted his congratulations after the performance: 
 
 I was tearing up in the middle of Meryl and Charlie's free dance. So proud and happy for my friends. No one deserves it more. :)!!!!!! — Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) February 17, 2014 
 
 Virtue and Moir became the first North American ice dance gold medalists at their home Olympics in Vancouver. Their free dance to Russian classical music told the story of their own partnership, which also stretches back to 1997. 
 
 In a performance at times tender and others triumphant, Moir kissed her hand at the start and again throughout the program. 
 
 
 
 "Don't think anyone will love us less for bringing home a silver medal to Canada," Virtue said. 
 
 Ilinykh and Katsalapov were just ninth at last year's world championships but are now the latest Olympic ice dance medalists from Russia, finishing 7.51 points behind the Canadians. She's only 19; he's 22. The home fans started cheering when the first few notes of "Swan Lake" played for their free dance, and they were roaring when it ended with Katsalapov collapsed on his knees and Ilinykh weeping. 
 
 France's Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat were fourth, 6.26 points out of bronze. The other U.S. teams, Madison Chock and Evan Bates and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani, were eighth and ninth. 
 
 Russia has won 18 of 33 medals in ice dance's Olympic history, but now North Americans own two straight golds. ||||| 1 of 35 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Highlights from Day 3 of competition at the 2014 Winter Games View Photos Julia Mancuso wins bronze. U.S. beats Switzerland in women’s hockey. Also, short-track speedskating and curling Caption Julia Mancuso wins bronze. U.S. beats Switzerland in women’s hockey. Also, short-track speedskating and curling Feb. 10, 2014 Julia Mancuso of the U.S. in action during the downhill portion of the super combined ski event, which also includes a slalom run, during day 3 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games on February 10. Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Snowboarders at the Olympics at times seem to have a language all their own. But there was no need for a translator Monday because nobody was mincing words: The Sochi halfpipe is substandard, the top riders in the world agreed. 
 
 Just one day before the Olympic halfpipe competition is scheduled to begin, snowboarders criticized the condition of the pipe, and one former gold medal winner even suggested the event be pushed back. 
 
 “Everyone is not happy right now,” said three-time Olympian Hannah Teter, the 2006 gold medal winner in the event. “I saw everyone take a hard fall today. That never happens. . . . They should push it back is what they should do, and fix it so we can showcase snowboarding the way it needs to be showcased. Not as a junk show, which is what it was looking like right now.” 
 
 The men’s halfpipe competition is scheduled for Tuesday night at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park with the women scheduled to compete Wednesday. Officials were planning to work through the night to improve the pipe, after a second straight day of uncharacteristic spills and unrestrained critiques. 
 
 Shaun White, the two-time gold medal winner in the event, didn’t try to hide his frustration following practice Monday night, calling the pipe “disappointing.” 
 
 “It’s hard to get in there and have all the tricks and have everything that you need and not be able to get to the wall,” he said. “I just had a frustrating practice and I’m hoping tomorrow will be better.” 
 
 Evolving sports of the Winter Olympics See which sports have come and gone 
 
 Practice Monday was originally scheduled for the morning but was postponed so officials could work on the pipe. Later in the evening, riders said as practice progressed, the transitions grew increasingly bumpy, and the flat surface area between the walls deteriorated. Teter likened it to a mogul field. Many riders had trouble staying upright and gathering momentum between tricks. 
 
 “That’s not what halfpipe is supposed to be like,” Teter said. “People are supposed to be landing their tricks.” 
 
 Snowboarders said the pipe was actually improved from Sunday, the first day of practice. The walls and curves received significant work. One U.S. coach said the warm weather Monday helped the snow stick earlier in the day, but riders said after a single practice run the pipe worsened and snowboarders began to fear what conditions would be like during actual competition. 
 
 American Danny Davis stopped short of calling the course dangerous. “It's just not as fun,” he said. 
 
 With more freestyle events, the Sochi Olympics will look more like the Winter X Games than ever before. (Associated Press) 
 
 Riders say they’ve been told the course will receive further treatment and grooming overnight, but some were openly considering their options after Monday's practice. 
 
 “If all of us got together, and we’re like, ‘We’re not doing it, let’s push it back,’ maybe they would,” Teter said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen.” 
 
 Teter acknowledged such a protest was unlikely, but she said White’s representatives have expressed concerns. White pulled out of the slopestyle competition last week, calling the course “intimidating” and saying he didn’t want to risk injury before his featured event. While he expressed frustration with the halfpipe course Monday night, he wasn’t certain what changes might occur before the competition begins. 
 
 “I don’t know the exact plan,” White said. “I’m sure there will be some sort of coaches’ meeting or something. I don’t really get involved in that. I’m hoping they can do whatever they can to make it a better pipe. It’s hard to get here and see this and feel the pressure. I don’t know.” 
 
 Under the current conditions, most said they’d have to alter their planned runs. White said he’d have trouble throwing his cab double cork 1440. “I’m hoping for the best,” he said. 
 
 Said Davis: “There’s a bunch of kids who can ride well in these conditions. I’m a little bit worried about myself riding so well in these conditions. Like I said, we’re going to ride it anyway.” 
 
 Mountains of the Olympics See why altitude matters 
 
 After two days of practices, riders say the Sochi Olympics pipe will force all riders to make adjustments. Many competed in a test event here last year and said the pipe was subpar at the time. A year later, it's still noticeably different from what they see in regular competitions. 
 
 “In the U.S., we build the best pipes in the world,” said Peter Foley, the U.S. snowboarding head coach. “We’ve had great contest pipes all year long. . . . That’s the standard; that’s what you like to see.” 
 
 Competing in her fourth Olympics, Kelly Clark has ridden the best halfpipes in the world. Despite the conditions this week, she said the Sochi pipe is actually an improvement over the one in Vancouver four years ago because of its steeper walls and a longer run. Even if conditions aren’t perfect this week, she said the best riders in the world should be good enough to deal with the adversity. 
 
 “If you’re making a mistake, it’s going to be amplified,” said Clark, who won gold at the 2002 Games. “The strongest rider is still going to come out on top.” 
 
 Even though tricks will be thrown and medals handed out, the event deserves better, Teter said, particularly on an Olympic stage with the whole world watching. 
 
 “You want everybody to see snowboarding as it should be, looking phenomenal with everybody doing what they know how to do,” she said. “Hopefully, they can pull it together.”
– US speedskaters aren't doing so hot, but other Americans strapping on skates at Sochi are making up for it. Today, Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first-ever gold for USA in ice dancing, reports CBS News. They beat the last gold-medal winners, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, by a relatively wide margin of 4.5 points. (The couples train together.) "It still hasn't sunk in yet," says Davis, 27. Adds White, 26, of their mistake-free skate today: "That in itself justified 17 years of hard work." The win is all the more impressive because, in ice dance, Americans "weren't even afterthoughts a decade ago," observes USA Today. In a less delicate ice-skating sport, the US women's hockey team advanced to the gold medal game against Canada with a 6-1 win over Sweden, reports AP. That's the matchup pretty much everyone expected before the Olympics began, and if previous games between these two very unfriendly rivals are a guide, this one should be entertaining even for non-hockey fans. The game is at noon Eastern on Thursday.