By Lori Ewing
MILAN, Feb 6 (Reuters) - American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates delivered a commanding start for champions the United States in the figure skating team event at the Milano Cortina Olympics, winning Friday's rhythm dance with a world's best score this season.
Skating with the precision and polish that made them three- times world champions, the duo scored 91.06 points with their programme to a montage of music by The Guess Who and Lenny Kravitz to ignite the raucous U.S. fans
inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
"We definitely skated great," Bates said. "I think we both felt the excitement of just getting these Olympics underway. You never know what to expect with the score.
"There was even a little delay, (because) they said it in Italian, we were looking for the score, and once we saw it, we were thrilled. To break 90 is always a great feat, and to do it to open the Games is even better."
Their performance pushed France down to second on the leaderboard, with new French duo Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron scoring 89.98 for their skate to Madonna's "Vogue." The Olympics are only their fifth major international competition after teaming up last March.
"Our goal was to really keep building," said Cizeron, who claimed the ice dance gold with previous partner Gabriella Papadakis at the 2022 Beijing Games.
"We've been improving at each competition and adding to our score, obviously, but getting more precise with our technical elements and having more fun, enjoying the performance and giving 100% so I think we're still kind of -- how do you say -- climbing that ramp a little bit."
Britain are third after Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson scored 86.85 points.
Introduced in 2014 in Sochi, the three-day team event features one entry per country in each of men's and women's singles, pairs and ice dance skating in both short and long programmes.
Unlike other skating events, the skaters sit in their respective national boxes cheering on their teammates.
Skaters are awarded points according to their place in the standings, so Chock and Bates earned 10 points for the U.S., the French have nine, and so on.
Only the top five countries after the short programmes advance to the free skates.
Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were fourth, while Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri have Italy in fifth.
The pairs and women's singles are also on Friday, while the men's singles short programme and free dance will be on Saturday.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Pritha Sarkar)
