Milan (Italy) (AFP) - French skaters Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry won the Olympic gold in ice dance, this Wednesday at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, despite having been associated as a sports couple for just over a year.

First modification: 02/11/2026 - 23:33 Last modification: 02/12/2026 - 00:05

For Cizeron it is her second Olympic gold in a row, four years after the one she achieved with Gabriella Papadakis, with whom she had a personal estrangement that even included public reproaches in a book written by the skater recently.

Fournier Beaudry, a French Canadian, and Cizeron accumulated 225.82 points, thus surpassing the American couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates (224.39 points, silver) and the Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (217.74 points, bronze) on the podium.

"It's very dizzying when you look back a year, when we started this challenge. God knows the obstacles we have had. I am very proud of Laurence and the strength he has shown, we have both worked hard to get here," Cizeron told French public television.

The French duo had already given the surprise on Monday by winning the first part of the competition, the rhythmic dance, with Madonna's hit "Vogue", in a performance that earned the applause of the queen of pop herself on social networks.

But nothing was written before this Wednesday, since Chock and Bates were less than half a point (0.46 pts).

Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry, with the ethereal soundtrack of the film "The Whale", released in 2022, dazzled with their dance and their blue uniform that played with transparency and was inspired by the aquatic universe.

Before the French couple's outing on the ice, Chock and Bates had performed their free dance, darker but equally high-level, to the Rolling Stones song "Paint it, Black" in a flamenco version.

For this they had had the advice of the Spanish choreographer Antonio Najarro.

Smart and Dieck, without a diploma

The Americans deserved 134.67 points, a new record for the season, but the French did not destabilize and then provided their best free skate of the season (135.64).

In total, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry finished with 225.82 points, beating Chock and Bates, with whom they regularly train in Montreal, by 1.43 points.

The Spanish couple formed by Olivia Smart, the country's flag bearer in these Games and born in Great Britain, and Tim Dieck, born in Germany, finished in ninth place, one away from the Olympic diploma.

"In any case it has been a spectacular moment and we are very happy," Smart told Spanish television Teledeporte.

Both had been sixth last year at the Boston World Cup.

Smart, then partnered with Adrián Díaz, had placed eighth in the 2022 Beijing Games.

© 2026 AFP

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.