Player's Own Voice podcast: Tessa Virtue's new post-skating happiness
Olympic champion settles into unique corporate role
A funny thing about great athletes: they tend to keep on surprising us, even after their competitive careers wind down.
Tessa Virtue is an example. One of the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history, she and her ice dance partner Scott Moir are perhaps the most celebrated duo in Canadian sport.
And so, catching up with Virtue again, five years after she said goodbye to Olympic skating — we learn that she has combined her high-performance sport experience, a masters in applied psychology, and an MBA, to build a unique business advisory role for herself at financial services giant Deloitte.
She's using her experience as a successful athlete to help workers hone their performance with skills like visualization, as well as taming mental chatter. The fit is not obvious until Virtue shows up and makes it happen. Off ice, in office, the connecting thread is a professional habit of excelling.
Virtue and host Anastasia Bucsis are old pals, and it shows in this final episode (for now, anyway) of Player's Own Voice podcast. Once the responsible questions and answers are out of the way, we're onto a raft of friendly banter and memories.
As an actual Barbie (Virtue's doll was released in 2019) Tessa has particular insights into the whole "Barbenheimer" cultural phenom of the past year. It's touching to hear how Virtue's mom plays into that conversation.
Anastasia and Tessa compare notes on newlywed life. Virtue's husband, Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, has given her a new perspective on the high-performance day to day. It's a pleasure for her to be so close with a fellow athlete, watch him doing what he loves, at the height of his career. But like Virtue says, there's happiness in healthy boundaries. He's not following her around the Deloitte office, and she's aware there's a time and place for everything, including cheering on the Maple Leafs.
There are transcripts of our podcasts for a hard-of-hearing audience. To listen to Tessa Virtue, Jessie Fleming, Josh Liendo, John Herdman, NIck Wammes & Sarah Orban, Luke Prokop, Laurence St-Germain, Hilary Knight or any of the guests from earlier seasons, go to CBC Listen or wherever else you get your podcasts.
