Heaven alone knows where UK skating would be without Sinead and John Kerr, but the Livingston-born couple's significance to the sport in Blighty has been emphatically reinforced by their performance throughout the British Championships in Nottingham.
At the conclusion of the competition on Saturday, the Kerrs had glided to their fourth consecutive title with a personal-best mark of 184.49. Just to place that in perspective, the second-ranked duo, Philippa Towler-Green and Philip Poole managed an aggregate of 138.06 (while Nicola Trippick and Jamie Burns amassed 126.33 in third), in which terms we are truly talking about a landslide victory for the Scots.
Mercifully, having spent the last few days speaking to the sibling duo at close quarters, it is clear they are not merely handling the pressure, but thriving on the adrenaline surge from the adulation which greets their arrival on the ice, wherever they venture, as they wowed the Italian crowds at last February's Winter Olympics.
Now coached by the frost-and-fire amalgam of complexities, otherwise known as Evgeny Platov, a former maestro of his pursuit, John and Sinead's demeanour and body language has been significantly transformed under their mentor's direction.
They no longer resemble kiddies in a candy store, but have developed a hauteur and maturity, which doesn't scream "Look at me", yet indicates that they appreciate they have paid their dues in the art of rinkmanship and have progressed to the stage where it is by no means fanciful to predict they will be on the medal podium by the 2009 World Championships and 2010 Olympics. Indeed, one suspects that if Platov continues to preach his mixture of stakhanovite values and sophisticated repertoires, they will be fighting for gongs even sooner than that.
In these circumstances, it wasn't arrogance but pragmatism which dictated that the Kerrs viewed events at the Nottingham Arena as a dry run for the European Championships in Warsaw next week, where they are aiming to improve substantially on last year's eighth position and qualify for the last group of five on Saturday week.
"We are confident of reaching that objective and, within the next 18 months, we genuinely believe we can break into the best three of four on the planet and our display during the contest in Nottingham, where we enhanced our PB by over 14 points, was an indication that things are moving in the right direction," said John yesterday.
"We knew that miracles wouldn't happen overnight when we teamed up with Evgeny, but we have quickly formed a terrific relationship with him, and there is no doubt he is making a big difference. We know we still have to improve and fine-tune on the minutiae, because quite often it boils down to fractions in the major competitions, but Evgeny has rammed home the message that we shouldn't feel inferior to anybody and that we should leave the others to worry about us.
"It might sound obvious, but perhaps in the past, we haven't behaved like top skaters, because we have been a little starry-eyed, a bit "golly gosh", in our attitude, but we are starting to change that mentality and Evgeny's philosophy is rubbing home on us.
"Sometimes you see youngsters entering the scene and acting like divas, then their performances are all over the place, and that can be embarrassing. But Sinead and I have been together long enough to recognise we are one of the leading couples in the standings and we deserve respect for that. It doesn't mean we should be arrogant or cocksure, but let's put it like this, we will be disappointed if we don't finish among the top five in Poland and we will be aiming to feature among the best seven or eight in the worlds in March they were 11th in 2006, because these are realistic goals.
"Of course, we were surprised to win the British title by such an enormous margin, and perhaps it would be better for the sport if we were being challenged more, but the truth is that there are a lot of talented youngsters emerging behind the scenes and we have to shoulder the responsibility of proving to them that British skating can flourish again.
"After all, the funding body and our national association NISA have placed their faith in us, which has allowed us to recruit Evgeny. So we can't let them down: we have to turn 184 into 190 and then 195 and onwards to 200, and that is well within our scope."
Skating's profile in Britain has never been higher since the halcyon period of Torvill and Dean and the latter will be in attendance when the new series of ITV's Dancing on Ice starts next weekend, adorned with the usual assortment of Z-listers, masquerading as so-called celebrities.
But ultimately, it is the Kerrs, with their relish for modernity, who have the greatest prospect of shattering perceptions and attracting a new audience in the future.
As they themselves declare, they shouldn't really be cruising to titles by massive margins, but the advances they have made in the last two years are remarkable and it is up to those in their slipstream to exhibit the same dedication.