Written by: Alex Green

Canadian gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are preparing to pay homage to The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie on a global stage.

The ice dancing duo will skate to the Hip’s “Long Time Running” Sunday evening in Pyeongchang, South Korea as their final Olympic run in the 2018 games.

Virtue and Moir decided to devote their exhibition gala routine to Downie in the traditional Olympic-closing event.

“When I think about Gord and I think about the Hip and what they’ve been able to do, it’s kind of the soundtrack to being Canadian almost,” Moir commented to the Canadian Press. He went on to add: “It’s special for us that we get to skate to the Hip, and it’s our tribute to one of my heroes and a guy who was so wonderfully weird, and just how he embraced life.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pbNHgSq6ak

Virtue seconded her partner’s sentiment, saying: “We’re both huge fans, and Scott just asked if we could somehow choreograph a little tribute and we thought maybe it would only be for that one competition, but it’s been lovely to take the ice and to celebrate a Canadian hero, and it means a lot to us. The lyrics of ‘Long Time Running’ also are easy for us to connect with for our career, but we’re really looking forward to performing that on Olympic ice.”

Moir and Virtue performed a similar routine back in late October at the Skate Canada International competition after hearing of Downie’s death.