Figure Skating

Canadian pairs figure skaters Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison were just 18 and 20 respectively when they arrived in Turn in 2006 for their first Olympic appearance.

They carried their luggage wide-eyed, trying to take in as much as they could from the start. They were among the youngest pairs competitors at those Games. Today, they admit they hadn't a clue about what awaited them.

"We were just so impressed," said Dubé, looking back. "We didn't know what to expect so everything-it was just really, really big for us."

At the time, Dubé, of St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que., and Davison, of Huntsville, Ont., had no world championship experience. They had never earned a Grand Prix medal, having only competed twice on the senior international circuit. In fact, Dubé and Davison had been skating together for less than three years.

But they had skated a clean free program to clinch Canada's second pairs figure skating berth at the 2006 Canadian Figure Skating Championships, and they had become Olympians.

What a difference four years makes.

On Monday morning, Dubé, now 22, and Davison, 24, walked into the Vancouver airport as 2008 world-championship bronze medallists, three-time national champions, and seasoned Olympians.

"Lots of things have changed since four years ago," Davison said on Monday before leaving the airport for the Olympic Village. "We're more mature. For sure there's more room to grow still but we're a completely different pairs team and this has become even more of a passion now than it was four years ago."

But the biggest change?

"We know how big an Olympics is," he said.

Dubé and Davison finished a surprising 10th in Turin -- one spot ahead of Craig Buntin and Valerie Marcoux, who were three-time reigning Canadian champions at the time.

Although Dubé and Davison will still be among the younger competitors at the 2010 Games, they have earned their stripes -- and with them, the knowledge that it is impossible to predict what is around the next corner.

At the 2007 Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Dubé suffered a major facial laceration while performing side-by-side camel spins during the free skate. Davison's blade struck her in the face, slicing her left cheek and part of her nose. The cut required surgery and 80 stitches to repair, but the emotional damage was more difficult for Dubé and Davison to overcome.

While Dubé could scarcely remember the accident, Davison relived it every time he closed his eyes.

In April of 2009, the pair had another alarming moment during the Gala at the Inaugural World Team Championship. During a split triple twist, Dubé hit Davison in the head while she was rotating in the air. Disoriented, he was unable to catch her. She hit the ice, hard.

As they left the rink in an ambulance, Davison couldn't help but think back to Colorado Springs.

"Instead of the flashbacks to the thought of it, it was actually real again," Davison said in an interview one month later, "And that was hard for me because it's not something you want to relive. It's not something you ever want to live, but if you do it's not something you want to live again."

Both Dubé and Davison suffered minor concussions, but Davison was only able to forgive himself for his partner's fall after video showed that he did everything he could to keep her from hitting the ice.

Days away from the beginning of the 2010 Olympics, Davison says these experiences have made him more prepared, but that still doesn't mean he knows exactly what to expect. Even his past Olympic experience can't completely prepare him for an Olympic Games at home.

"We've been mentored by skaters that have experienced a home Games in the past with Calgary but you don't know how big an Olympic Games is until you live it and a home Games," he said. "For the home competitors is way bigger. So we don't know exactly what to expect but really it's just taking it one thing at a time."