ILDERTON – When Scott Moir’s aunt Carol paired him with Tessa Virtue at age nine, she did so for practical reasons.

They were both skating at the same level then, and they matched each other in terms of body size.

“Scott was a little nine-year-old,” Carol said of her nephew, who as a grown man is only 5’10.”

He needed someone shorter still, and seven-year-old Virtue fit the bill.

Carol did not know then that she was laying the foundation for perhaps the greatest ice dance pair in Canadian history, the youngest pair ever to win Olympic gold in the sport.

But there were times she could see glimpses of what to come, times when coaches and other skaters would simply stop and watch.

“We knew we had something special,” Carol said. “Everyone wanted to watch them instead of practice.”

Carol coached them for a time, in Scott’s native Ilderton, and jokingly gave herself credit for some of their success.

“Natural talent (is what I’d attribute it to),” she said, growing serious. “They both were skilled technicians and they both loved to perform.”

The goal was to make it to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Carol said – something the pair fell short of.

But they gradually rose to the top of the ice dance world and skated as if their lives depended on it at the Vancouver Games.

They were second in the compulsory dance, first after the original dance, and solidified a gold medal in the free dance.

Moir and Virtue were suddenly household names in Canada, and in other corners of the world. They were in hot demand for interviews, and their celebrity is not expected to diminish soon.

Carol was nervous for them initially, before the compulsory.

“It wasn’t a nervous emotion,” she said. “It was a calm emotion ... but when I saw them on the ice, how they warmed up – just their body language and just from knowing them so well ... I knew they were confident, and I knew that they were in the zone.”

When their marks for the free dance came up, it was an emotional moment, Carol said – she cried and cheered and cried some more.

“But when they (got their) medals on the podium ... you couldn’t wipe the smile off your face,” she added. “Just seeing how excited those two were and how they were blaring out the ‘O Canada.’

“We had to do the same thing back here (in Ilderton).”

Carol watched the performance from the Ilderton Community Centre, which was packed with people wearing Canada-themed clothing and was broadcast live on national television.

Carol was interviewed on TV while still crying, she said.

There is a perception that the world has not seen the best of Moir and Virtue, that given success at such a young age – 22 and 20, respectively – they still have plenty of room to grow.

Aunt Carol is predictably in that boat.

“I still think they have a lot of potential left,” she said, “because they’re very innovative with their lifts and their choreography. I think they have a lot where they can help develop the sport.”