MILAN (AP) — The new French ice dance staff of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron upset the dominant staff of the previous 4 years, American stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and claimed Olympic gold on the Milan Cortina Games on Wednesday night time.
Beaudry and Cizeron needed to comply with a season-best efficiency by the three-time reigning world champions, they usually did it with close to perfection. The duo was rewarded with a season-best 225.82 factors of their very own whereas Chock and Bates completed with 224.39, making Cizeron the primary skater to win back-to-back ice dance gold with totally different companions.
The Canadian staff of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the bronze medal with 217.74 factors, pulling away from the Italian staff of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and the British duo of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson with a deeply emotional free skate.
As for Beaudry and Cizeron, they arrived in Milan with controversy stemming from their ex-partners swirling round them.
This time final 12 months, Beaudry was questioning whether or not she would even compete this season after Skate Canada banned her companion and longtime boyfriend, Nikolaj Sorensen, amid allegations of “sexual maltreatment.” Beaudry has steadfastly maintained his innocence and the suspension was overturned in June on jurisdictional grounds, however the case remains to be pending.
Cizeron stepped away from competitors after the 2022 season, when he gained Olympic gold with Gabriella Papadakis. But the prospect to make a comeback with Beaudry, who was ninth with Sorensen on the Beijing Games, was too good to cross up.
Beaudry and Cizeron gained each occasion they entered this season saving the Grand Prix Final, once they completed second to Chock and Bates of their solely earlier head-to-head assembly. But their easy trip to Milan was shaken up when Papadakis wrote in her new memoir that Cizeron had been demanding, controlling and manipulative towards her — accusations he known as a “smear campaign.”
The French staff hardly appeared distracted by any of it Monday night time, when it edged Chock and Bates within the rhythm dance.
Beaudry and Cizeron most undoubtedly weren’t distracted by something Wednesday night time.
It would have been straightforward to be thrown off by the way in which Chock and Bates carried out within the minutes earlier than they stepped on the ice.
The two-time Olympic gold medalists within the staff occasion — performing to an instrumental model of “Paint it Black” from the dystopian sci-fi present “Westworld” — turned within the form of program they’ve spent the final 15 years collectively working towards. Every motion gave the impression to be in good concord, and the flamenco-styled choreography had the gang clapping together with them.
The solely query left was whether or not the husband-wife staff, who had completed a maddening fourth within the particular person ice dance on the Beijing Games, had completed sufficient to earn the one medal that had perpetually eluded them.
It regarded as if Beaudry and Cizeron gave them a gap with a bobble on their twizzles. But they quickly settled into their program, set to the soundtrack from “The Whale,” and moved as in the event that they have been below water with a fabulous diploma of refined class.
As their successful rating was learn, Chock and Bates joined the gang contained in the Milano Ice Skating Arena in applauding them.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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