SOCHI, RUSSIA—The villainy of ice dancing knows no bounds.

Strip away the sequins, wipe off the pancake makeup, delete the frozen-in-place smiles, and what’s left is a tawdry whore of a sport where the judges are the johns.

If the fix is not in against Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, then I’m the Princess of Wales.

They are the defending Olympic champions but for the past two seasons it has become transparently clear that a repeat gold was not in the scheme of things. And scheming is the correct term for what transpired in the short program competition here Sunday night.

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Never have the Canadians performed their jazzy routine as flawlessly as they did on this evening. Even their coach, Marina Zoueva, who has intensely divided loyalties as maestra for the arch-rival American duo as well, said so. When, of course, she wasn’t basking in the glow of her front-running charges, Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Not only were the U.S. tandem slotted first, invested with superior marks in every single category appraised, they were also sent off into Monday’s free dance with a new world record under their belts for the short: 78.89. That’s a 2.56-point bulge on Virtue and Moir, at 76.33. In ice dance, that’s tantamount to a three-goal lead heading into the third period.

It can be done, surpassing the Americans. But given how generously they’ve been marked for two years now — defeating the Canadians in their last four head-to-head competitions, including worlds last March in London, Ont. — the Yanks would damn near have to fall on their backsides to blow it.

The U.S. has never won an ice dance championship at the Olympics. Obviously, the judges have decided it’s time.

That’s how they do it in this sleazy game. They too often take it out of the hands of the skaters.

I am not a homer and the written record at these Games will show that. But a quarter-century of covering the sport has taught me that figure skating can never be trusted and ice dancing is the worst culprit.

But don’t take my word for it. Virtue and Moir received a Level 3 mark for the Finnstep part of the routine. Level 4 is the top grade on all elements. Let Moir explain the inside-baseball esoterica of this portion of the short dance:

“It’s the compulsory set dance. So it’s a 36-second segment where all the skaters have to do the same step in the same hold and they judge six specific (factors) very crucially. And it’s worth a lot of points. That’s where you make it or break it in this dance.”

Basically, all the couples have to do the same pattern. The “caller” — that’s the technical panel — determines the level achieved and the judges score how well it’s done.

That alone, on the detailed results sheet, cost the Canadians two huge points because the Finnstep was knocked down to a Level 3.

That step is named for its inventors, Finn ice dancers Petri Kokko and Susanna Rahkamo. This is what Kokko tweeted Sunday night, and he oughta know. “I don’t understand the judging in #icedancing. @Virtue_Moir should be leading in my honest opinion.”

He also opined that the Americans’ timing was off in the Finnstep. Yet they set a world record?

Oh the brazen trashiness of it all.

The nationality of the judges is not provided, nor will we ever know who gave what score because the International Skating Union allows them anonymity. But don’t forget the report in respected French sports magazine L’Equipe last week, quoting an unnamed Russian coach claiming that a quid pro quo deal had been reached between American and Russian judges, an arrangement by which the Americans would boost Russian scores in the inaugural team event — which, indeed, the Russians won — in return for boosting American marks in the individual ice dance competition.

Virtue and Moir didn’t skate to their pristine ability in the team event so there’s no disputing that the Americans outscored them there, though not so harshly marked for their own lapses, particularly in the out-of-sync twizzles. But they were not the best skaters on the ice Sunday night and they most certainly didn’t merit a world record score.

At the end of their performance — they skated ahead of Davis and White — the Canadians were over-the-moon thrilled. Moir even continued a bit of post-skate celebratory choreography.

“Ta-tap, ta-tap, ta-tap . . . then I looked back at Tessa and she was, like, you left me! So I had to hug her. Sometimes the excitement gets the best of me and I was staying in character.”

Virtue, laughing: “Yeah, I didn’t get the memo on that one.”

Both were puzzled by that Level 3 mark.

“I was surprised,” said Moir, who had yet to scrutinize the detailed results sheet. “I thought our levels were better than in the team competition, so I’d have to see it. But just the slightest thing . . . ”

Which is fine, if there was just the slightest thing. But there was not.

They’d been anxious and impatient all day, Moir in particular, just because he was so eager to get back to competing after six days off following the team event. “To be honest, I was twiddling my thumbs. I didn’t think six days could last any longer than they did. This morning I woke up with a big smile on my face. It’s funny because we’re living the dream right now. We’re in the Olympic village and I’m surrounded by a lot of the guys I grew up (watching), playing hockey, a lot of the sports stars, long-track speed skating, curling, that I’ve admired for years. And I was just miserable. I just wanted my chance. I wanted to be out there. I wanted to be on the stage. It was a long wait time. You wouldn’t want to be a family member of mine, those last couple of days.”

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They’d practised at 9.30 in the morning, which left some 12 hours to fill before taking to the ice for the real thing. “A long time to let the nerves build up,” said Virtue. “I think our mindset was right heading into this event, just trying to do our job, focus on the program and stay in the moment.”

And what a transcendent moment it was for them at the end of the performance.

“I said to Tessa after we finished: That’s the skate that we have been having in practice. To do that on this stage, it felt pretty good.”

They’d nailed it, the short, better than at any point this past season on the Grand Prix circuit. “That was the strongest we’ve skated for sure,” said Moir.

At that point, the Americans had yet to skate. But Virtue and Moir were so evidently pleased, so confident. Indeed, Virtue admitted that she’d walked through the empty mixed zone after practice and imagined what it would be like later in the day, facing the expected throng of media. “I was visualizing how I wanted to feel when I stood in front of you guys tonight.”

Moir asked: “How close were you?

Virtue: “It’s even better.”

Addressing the reporters, she added: “It’s less intimidating when you guys aren’t here.”

Moir winked at the press pack: “Aww, how cute is that? We’re giving you guys good stories tonight.”

Alas, the story was destined to have a different ending.

The weirdness of sharing a coach/choreographer and a training base in Canton, Mich., has for years been a recurring theme with these two couples. Naturally it came up again Sunday night. Virtue waved off the rivalry, graciously.

“Maybe it’s revved up in the media because that’s what everyone’s talking about. But, interestingly, this is where it sort of dies for us because it’s easy to get in our zone. Unlike at home where we see Meryl and Charlie every single day, we’ve been on different practices, different warmup groups from them, so we haven’t crossed paths that many times.”

The Canadians were gone by the time Davis and White came through, all chuffed with their scores and understandably so, Canadians and Russians trailing behind.

“I was telling Charlie, in the middle of the program, I just felt like I was in a dream. It’s such a surreal experience, even being here at our second Games, to be here with our parents and just kind of feeling ready to go, is a really wonderful feeling. You feel very lucky.”

Stupidest question of the scrum: “Are you happy with a new world record?”

They didn’t even bother to answer that one.

Zoueva said of her Americans: “They were flying.”

The second of three Canadian dance couples, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, were frankly shafted and frankly bewildered by their scores, too, marked remarkably low at 65.90, seventh overall. The crowd booed lustily. “Everyone’s a little confused at this point,” said Weaver. “The technical score is fishy . . . ”

In ice dance, there are always two shows — the one on the ice, as the skaters perform, and the sideshow immediately afterwards, when the scores flash up on the board. For a while, until they were dropped into second, Virtue and Moir had soaked up both. That was the purity of their performance, before the controversy of the marks.

Said Moir: “We sat in the kiss ’n’ cry and looked at each other and said, it doesn’t matter, because that was the moment we wanted to have.”

He was asked: Do you feel like you can win gold?

“Who knows?”

I think everybody knows.