US figure skater Charlie White has stated that winning a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games justifies 17 years' worth of work for him and his partner Meryl Davis.
The duo began their Olympic dream by practising together in Michigan back in 1997, when Davis was aged eight and White a year younger.
On Wednesday, they finished first with a record score of 195.52 points following a flawless showing in the free dance programme.
"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," USA Today quotes White as saying.
"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. You mature a lot quicker under that pressure, and I think we did that. Today in itself justified 17 years of hard work."
The gold medal is America's first ever in a figure skating event.
Joe McPhee
