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United States figure skating pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates secured the silver medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, finishing with a total score of 224.39 after notching a 134.67 score in their free dance on Wednesday night.
Chock and Bates, the married couple who have been skating together for over a decade, were beaten out for gold by French pairing Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, who scored a 135.64 in the free dance for a total of 225.82.
It was the pairing’s best score to date, and it was needed to edge out Chock and Bates, the group who won the U.S. its 12th medal at the Games thus far.
Finishing in third place for the bronze medal was an emotional Canadian pair of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who were ecstatic seeing their final score of 217.74 after a 131.56 free dance result to put them in podium position.
A second U.S. group of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, making their Olympic debut, finished fifth with a total 206.72 points.
Chock and Bates were trailing the French couple by 0.46 of a point entering the free dance on Wednesday night, and they were searching for their first ice dance Olympic medal with hopes that it would obviously be gold.
Their matador routine, dancing to a rendition of The Rolling Stones’ famous tune, “Paint It, Black,” resulted in loads of cheers from the crowd, as they finished with tears in their eyes.
Chock and Bates are two-time team gold winners after Sunday’s Team USA victory, but they had to watch one more routine to see if they could capture gold when Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron took the ice.
After a similarly brilliant routine, the judges decided the French duo did enough to defeat the Americans in the end.
Cizeron won the ice dance title at the Beijing Games in 2022, though it was with his former partner Gabriella Papadakis, with whom he also won five world titles with.
Their split, though, was filled with controversy, as Papadakis accused Cizeron of an “unbalanced” relationship, where she felt she was “under his grip,” in her memoir. She also claimed he was “controlling” and “demanding.”
Cizeron called it a “smear campaign” as well as “false information,” while saying he will take legal action against his partner he had been skating with since they were children.
Meanwhile, Fournier Beaudry dealt with her own controversy last year, as she was previously with Canadian skater Nikolaj Sorensen in a personal and professional relationship. Sorensen was hit with a six-year suspension after a sexual assault allegation from 2012, though it didn’t involve Fournier Beaudry, but rather an American skating coach.
Fournier Beaudry was rushed into French citizenship last year in order to partner with Cizeron. They went on to win four of their five major title events together, though their one second-place finish was to Chock and Bates at the International Skating Union Grand Prix Final.
But the Olympic gold stays with France in this event after a thrilling performance by all pairs at the Milan Cortina Games.
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