Olympic Ice Dancing Has Broken My Heart 

You hate to see your favorite Olympic ice dancers lose. But to watch them lose to ice dancers who have been competing together for less than two years—after both split from former partners amid highly publicized and controversial circumstances? Blood-boiling devastation. At least that’s how I’m feeling this morning.

Team USA ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates took silver in the individual Olympic ice dancing event on Tuesday, losing to Team France by an infuriating 1.42 points. (The French judge was highly sus.) Chock and Bates have been competing together for 15 years (and as of 2024, have been married for two), have seven national titles, three consecutive world championships, and were highly favored to win the gold going into the Olympics. Meanwhile, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron only partnered up in March 2025 after Cizeron’s former partner accused him of being “controlling” and Fournier Beaudry’s former partner faced sexual assault allegations.

Each individual Olympic figure skating event has two programs–the short program, or in ice dancing, “rhythm dance,” and the free skate. Sunday was the “rhythm dance” program, where even the NBC commentators said Chock and Bates delivered one of their all-time best performances. “I have never seen them skate that determined … they were hungry tonight,” Olympian and NBC commentator Johnny Weir said. “They’re not going to let anyone steal this medal without a fight.”

Chock and Bates captured the hearts and minds of America. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/TTCvbHsfuE

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 12, 2026

But a seemingly-small mistep—one that even commentators struggled to identify in real time—downgraded one of their technical skills from a Level 4 to a Level 3. “I am surprised,” Olympian and host Scott Hamilton said. “I didn’t see that one coming.” Commentator Andrea Joyce added that it was “pretty impossible to be able to tell exactly what that step was.” Their final score was 89.72, 0.46 behind France’s 90.18.

And on Tuesday, despite delivering a sharper and stronger program than Team France (in the eyes of many), Chock and Bates got screwed. There are nine judges total for the free dance, and Chock and Bates earned the top scores from five judges, while Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron earned top scores from four. French judge Jezabel Dabouis gave Chock and Bates 129.74—7.71 points behind Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron’s 137.45—the lowest score of all nine judges. (Though Spanish judge Marta Olozagarre also scored them shockingly low, giving them a 132.75, which placed them behind the eventual bronze-medal winners, Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.)

“We really gave it our all, and I wouldn’t change anything about how we approached each performance, what we delivered in each performance,” Chock told reporters through tears afterward.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates got emotional after narrowly missing out on Gold in free dance. #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/Qi2QUOxgCU

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 12, 2026

Ultimately, all these competitors are friends, and they all hugged and took selfies together, so hooray for good sportsmanship. But this was Chock and Bates’ fourth Olympic Games (first as a married couple!), and they delivered gold-medal winning performances. It’s very unlikely they’ll return for a fifth Olympics in 2030. I’m so mad.

“We’ve had an incredible career, and we’ve been so well supported by our families and our coaches and by each other,” Chock said. “Sometimes that’s just how it shakes out. This is the story for us, and I wouldn’t change anything.”

Let’s return now to Beaudry and Cizeron’s path to the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, a pairing that shocked the figure skating world and that Olympian Adam Rippon described in the Netflix documentary Glitter & Gold as having “some sinister energy.”

After Cizeron won gold at the 2022 Beijing Games with his then-partner Gabriella Papadakis (they also won silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games), they announced their retirement in December 2024. Papadakis then wrote a memoir, which came out in January, Pour ne pas disparaître (which translates to So as Not to Disappear). In it, she writes that Cizeron was “often controlling, demanding, and critical,” that she once told him she feared him, and she ultimately wouldn’t practice together unless there was a coach with them. She also criticizes the sport, highlighting the power imbalance, and describes not feeling like her body was her own.

Cizeron called her comments a smear campaign and asked his lawyers to “formally put all parties involved on notice to immediately cease the dissemination of defamatory statements about me.”

Papadakis was supposed to be an analyst for NBC at the Milan Cortina Games, but the network fired her after the memoir came out for conflict of interest.  “I’m not dealing with it very well; I’ve cried a lot,” she told French outlet L’Équipe in January. “I was super disappointed because I was just beginning that career as a commentator.”

Now for Fournier Beaudry’s background: In October 2024, Canada banned her previous partner (and boyfriend) Nikolaj Sørensen from the sport for six years after an investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted an American figure skater in April 2012. The woman, who was then 22, alleges that Sørensen held her down against her will and raped her at a party near Hartford, Connecticut.

Sørensen’s suspension was then overturned in June, but an arbitration board soon ruled that it needed to go under review. Either way, he would not be making it to the Milan Cortina Olympics. Fournier Beaudry, who was born in and has previously competed for Canada, was granted French citizenship in November, allowing her to compete with Cizeron for France at the 2026 Games.

As for her reactions to the allegations, she’s stood by Sørensen, whom she’s dated since 2014. In Glitter & Gold, she said she felt like “collateral damage,” but has continued to defend him.

“When they decided to suspend him, it meant that his career was over, which also meant that my career was over,” she said on the Netflix documentary. “This was extremely difficult because it was not only about skating, it was about my integrity, it was about his integrity. I know my boyfriend 100 per cent. I know him. And we [stood] strong together.”

On Feb. 6, USA Today reports that the survivor texted them this statement: “The comments by the French team in the press and on a Netflix documentary create a dangerous environment for skaters who need to report abuse. The comments of the reigning Olympic champion and a team in contention for the upcoming Olympic title carry weight, and using their voices to publicly undermine a survivor’s truth further enforces the culture of silence in figure skating.” When the outlet asked Fournier Beaudry about the comment, she responded, “We have no thoughts.” Sørensen was seen in the rink in Milan, cheering on Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron.

And that’s who edged out a 15-year partnership by 1.42 points.

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