By Lori Ewing
MILAN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron captured ice dance gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics on Wednesday, edging Americans Madison Chock and Evan
Bates in a remarkable story of reinvention less than a year after they teamed up.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron -- who became the first ice dancer to win-back-to back Olympic titles with different partners after he also captured gold in 2022 with Gabriella Papadakis -- scored 135.64 with their spellbinding free dance for 225.82 points overall.
Three-times world champions Chock and Bates, who had been undefeated all season, had to settle for silver with a total of 224.39. After chasing an Olympic medal in ice dance for more than a decade, they finally secured one on Wednesday, but it was not the colour they had dreamed of.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured bronze with 217.74 for their first Olympic medal. The Canadians, who have weathered numerous personal battles, broke down in tears after completing their emotional routine as they realised they had almost certainly done enough to secure a medal.
Gilles underwent surgery for ovarian cancer in the 2022-23 season after losing her mother to brain cancer in 2018.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who train alongside their American rivals in Montreal, led by a razor-thin 0.46 of a point after Monday's rhythm dance, setting up a thrilling finale.
But the night belonged to Fournier Beaudry - a Canadian who received her French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics, and Cizeron.
The duo were competing in only their fifth international competition, the latest chapter of a partnership forged less than a year ago after a suggestion from Cizeron to his longtime friend.
Their free dance — a lyrical, flowing program set to the soundtrack of "The Whale" — was inspired by water, the choreography transforming the emotional score into seamless edges and airy, effortless lifts. Fournier Beaudry collapsed into Cizeron's arms following their final pose in a moment that felt like arrival as much as victory.
"I admit it's quite dizzying when you look back just one year ago, when we set ourselves this almost impossible challenge, and God knows we had obstacles, but that makes it all the more special," an emotional Cizeron told France TV.
"We are extremely proud of ourselves and of each other. I am extremely proud of Laurence and the strength she has shown. Honestly, what has happened in a year, I have no other words than dizzying."
While Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron skate with a refinement that feels unmistakably French, all classic grace, long lines, and understated elegance, Chock and Bates are all about power and drama.
The American husband-and wife's free programme to Rolling Stones classic "Paint It Black" was built around a gender‑role reversal in which Chock played the matador and Bates the bull - blending flamenco and paso doble themes.
The four-minute programme featured sharp, deliberate accents, with hands carving the air, deep edges and crisp footwork matched to flamenco rhythms, and expanded in the second half with sweeping lifts and intricate step sequences.
The disappointed look on their faces when Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron's score flashed up said it all -- silver felt like a loss. Chock and Bates already own two Olympic team titles -- including one captured earlier in Milan -- but it was the ice dancing gold that they had their eyes set on considering they had never climbed the medal podium in the event.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, meanwhile, have been at the centre of a storm, facing scrutiny around the circumstances of their partnership after allegations made by Cizeron's former partner Papadakis, with whom he won five world titles.
In her recently-released memoir "So as Not to Disappear", Papadakis labelled Cizeron "controlling" and "demanding" - accusations Cizeron denies.
Fournier Beaudry's former partner Nikolaj Sorensen was suspended in 2024 for six years for sexual maltreatment. The suspension has since been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
