Gilles & Poirier skate to second straight ice dance silver at World Figure Skating Championships

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier make it back-to-back silver medals, delivering a spectacular free dance performance on Saturday at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston, MA.

Skating their free dance to Annie Lennox’s version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” the Canadians scored a second-best 130.10 points for a total of 216.45. This is their 12th world championship appearance together. The veteran ice dance team had entered Saturday’s competition in second place and held steady to finish there.

“There was a lot of energy!” said Poirier after their rhythm program. “We enjoyed our program, we had refined it a lot in training and we knew exactly what to do on the ice. […] Last year, we took a big step forward and it was a nice surprise for us. This year our expectations are very high and it’s very exciting!”

Gilles and Poirier finished behind the American team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who claimed their third consecutive title on Saturday with 222.06 points. Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson took bronze with 207.11.

Meanwhile, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha finished seventh overall with a total of 200.41, highlighted by the fifth-best rhythm dance score of 81.77. The third Canadian team in the competition, Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer, made a promising debut, finishing in the top 20 with a score of 170.88.

The combined placement from Canada’s top two teams helped the country retain three provisional ice dance spots for Milan Cortina 2026.

Gilles and Poirier had also finished second behind Chock and Bates at last year’s world championships in Montréal, despite winning the free dance. The four-time Canadian champions, who earned worlds bronze in 2021 and 2023, bested the Americans at last month’s Four Continents Championships in Seoul, setting the stage for their much-anticipated rematch at the worlds this weekend.