PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of -- The morning after their gold medal skate, Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir woke up to learn their popularity had gone global.

The enormity was tough for them to take in.

Virtue and Moir captured gold in what was probably their final competitive skate, and their chemistry that has long captivated figure skating fans at home stretched beyond Canadian borders at these Games.

At a news conference Wednesday, a British reporter spoke of the duo's popularity in his country. Brits had compared them to their legendary ice dance stars Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Some had posted on social media that "for these next three or four minutes, I'm Canadian."

"Oh wow," Virtue said. "That's incredibly touching."

"No kidding," Moir added.

"And wonderfully heartwarming. We're so grateful for that support," said Virtue. "We're so happy for the sport, because it can only be good to celebrate ice dance and gain some notoriety for athletes in our discipline. It's really neat when people feel connected to a certain athlete, and we're thankful people tuned in."

The British reporter went on to tell them of a tweet that suggested Canada erect statues of the two, one on the country's east coast, one on its west coast, so "everybody can feel the love between you two in the middle."

"That is the loveliest," Virtue gushed. "And I just want to give everyone a great big hug. I want everyone to feel that love . . . That's so nice. Wow, I want to meet that person."

Joked Moir: "That was me."

"You haven't figured out your own Twitter account, so I can't imagine you could come up with fake ones," Virtue shot back with a laugh.

They were coming off a whirlwind night of endless interviews and very little sleep. But the Canadians seemed in no hurry to leave the news conference, where their four gold medals -- they also helped Canada win the team event -- were laid out neatly on a table.

"I've been so good with my diet and everything, and last night I had a hamburger and it kept me up all night so I think that's the difference between 22 (years old), 26 and 30 now maybe. But also, how do you sleep?" said Moir.

"I didn't want the day to end," Virtue added.

Moir went to bed with his gold medal in his hands, as he'd done eight years earlier at the Vancouver Games.

"It's just about enjoying the moment and being a proud Canadian. I might have put my head on the pillow, but I don't think the eyes closed for very long," he said.

They'd been in their own little bubble, buffered from the outside noise, in their preparation for Pyeongchang. They even carried different phones, one the Moir called his "batphone."

He took a quick peak at his regular phone late Tuesday night, and read the first three of about 100 messages.

"There's so many important people and so many Canadians that I really want to reach out to, and take the time," he said. "I don't want to just fire off a massive meaningless text message. I will get back to everybody, but it's going to take a couple of days."

They praised the crowd at Gangneung Ice Arena, which was dotted with dozens of Canadian flags.

"It's been a special Games and we're very, very fortunate to have been in the venue (Tuesday) night and had the skate with the support of the crowd. We're a long way from home," Moir said. "And it lifted us up. That was the skate of our lives, and it was a very special moment."

The three-time world champions were asked about the secret to their chemistry. Moir credited his partner of two decades, saying Virtue has pushed the two to keep improving every season.

"It's been probably one of the biggest joys I've had in my life so far to share this with her, and I'm really proud of her progression," he said. "What I'm most proud of when I think back about our partnership is Tessa's dedication . . . Leading up into this 2018, it was daunting at times to keep up with her and her work ethic, to be honest. There were days she'd be skating and really she found the glide of her blade better than she ever has, and it was hard to keep up with."

Added Virtue: "Maybe that's the key to our partnership, is that I feel the same way about him and his skating. Maybe that's what we have figured out. We're at least each other's biggest fans."