France’s Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron prevail in razor-tight Olympic showdown

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03:25

2026 Olympics | Figure Skating | Free Dance

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France prevailed in a razor-tight showdown for the Olympic gold on Wednesday in Milan, Italy. USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates placed a very close second to earn the silver, while Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada took the bronze in their third Olympic appearance.

This was not Cizeron’s first Olympic gold, however. With former partner, Gabriella Papadakis, he is the 2022 Olympic champion and the 2018 Olympic silver medalist. After nearly a three-year hiatus following the 2022 Olympics, Papadakis and Cizeron officially called it quits in December 2024. In March 2025, it was announced that Cizeron had partnered with Fournier Beaudry. She obtained French citizenship seven months later.

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France perform their Free Dance at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2026.

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron

Skating last of the 20 teams, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron delivered a captivating free dance to music from The Whale. There was a slight error by Cizeron on a twizzle which was graded a level three. The team quickly recovered to produce three level-four lifts and dance spin. They showed good unison and flow in their footwork and were awarded high grades of execution on nearly all elements. The 2025-26 Grand Prix Final silver medalists posted a personal best in both the free dance and total score (135.64/225.82), edging Chock and Bates out by 1.43 points.

“Oh my God, we are still in shock!” said Cizeron. “We had such a special time on the ice today. Looking back a year ago when we started dreaming of this, it’s incredible what we’ve been through—all the work, all the training, and all the support we got along the way.”

“Guillaume is the best,” said Fournier Beaudry. “From the start, when we started skating together, I knew he was the best ice dancer in the world. He brought me so much confidence throughout the season, and that confidence probably helped us achieve what we did.”

“We are both perfectionists and always want to give everything,” added Cizeron. “Tonight, we skated with our hearts and gave 100% to this performance. This choreography is like our baby—we love it so much! We loved creating it, rehearsing it, and it is just so special to us.”

USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates perform their Free Dance at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2026.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

Chock and Bates, who skated before the French, posted a season’s best of 134.67 points for their searing free dance to “Paint It Black.” The flamenco-style program was without error and the three-time World champions attacked their footwork. The twizzles and difficult lifts were graded a level four, and the team racked up high GOEs in all elements. Their total score was 224.39, another season’s best.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” said Chock. “We have so much to be proud of. We’ve had the most incredible career, 15 years on the ice together. We delivered four of our best performances this week. I’m really proud of how we’ve handled ourselves and what we’ve accomplished here. I’m really grateful to our coaches and our families. They’ve come all this way and supported us through it all. It means so much to us to be a part of the sport and to have contributed years of work and creativity to fully inspire the next generation of skaters to be the best they can be and be creative and love what they do.”

“We just performed four times in six days at the Olympics,” added Bates. “We’ve never done anything like it, and it took so much mental strength and discipline to stay focused over the last six days and to deliver four great performances. At the end of the fourth one, the emotions just came flooding out because it’s just a lot. And we really did our best. I think that is something that we’ll try to remember and focus on most. We really did our best. We delivered every time we stepped on the ice.”

“Life is… sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way,” he added. “And that’s life and that’s sport, and it’s a subjective sport, it’s a judge sport. One fact, we did our best, we skated our best. We felt like we were very close.”

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier

Gilles and Poirier gave a poignant free dance to “Vincent,” earning a new season’s best of 131.56 for third place in the free dance. The four-time World medalists earned high GOEs in all elements, including the level-four twizzles, lifts and dance spin. Both the serpentine and one-foot steps were graded a level three. Their total score was 217.74.

“This bronze medal means everything to us and our team, after 15 long years of journey,” said Gilles. “Paul and I have chosen time and time again to continue, to show people who we are on and off the ice. We feel these raw emotions that people can truly connect with, seeing a piece of themselves in action. It truly means everything.”

“Piper and I both felt so calm today, which was a little strange going into a competition of this magnitude,” said Poirier. “That calmness came from being really prepared and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. We just said, ‘This is who we are, this is what we do, here you go,’ without getting caught up in anything else. That calmness kept us present through every single step of the program. It was such a wonderful skate, and we felt like we had the whole crowd with us from start to finish.”

Three years ago, the now 34-year-old Gilles was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

“I don’t think I envisioned this moment,” she said. “But that’s what’s so amazing about Paul and I. We are people first, athletes second, and I think that’s what always guided us. I think it’s a great example for anyone going through a dark time, mental health challenges, or health issues. You can do hard things no matter what. If you can just get out of bed, keep believing in yourself, and keep chasing your dreams, anything can happen. I’m really proud of that, and Paul and I are proud of who we represent as people, showing that you can do it.”

Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri perform their Free Dance at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2026.

Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri

Skating to music from Diamanti, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy gave a graceful and sophisticated free dance. Fabbri lost a level on his twizzles as well as the circular steps. However, the one-foot steps were graded a level three, while their lifts and dance spin were a level four. All elements except for the twizzles were rewarded with high GOEs. The six-time European medalists placed fourth in the free dance and moved up to fourth place overall (125.30/209.58).

“Now we feel a little bit relieved,” said Fabbri. “It was not 100 percent perfect, but we are proud of what we achieved at these Games. Going home with a third place in the team event and a fourth place in the individual event—at the beginning of our career, we would never have dreamed of that. This medal was the last thing missing in our collection. Now we have it. It was the big cake on the cherry—not cherry on the cake, like I always say.”

When asked about the results of the Free Dance, Fabbri said: “Personally, and this is just my personal taste—I usually prefer Guillaume and Laurence. But today, in my opinion, they didn’t skate well. So, I think Madison and Evan would have deserved to win.”

Italy’s Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik perform their Free Dance at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2026.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik

USA’s Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik showed confidence in their free skate to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. The 2026 Four Continents champions attacked their program, which was highlighted by level four twizzles. While they lost a level on the stationary lift, they still managed a new personal best of 123.19 in their debut at this event. They placed a very respectable fifth in the free dance and moved up one spot to fifth place overall (206.72).

“I mean, this is crazy! We’re top five at the Olympics!” said Zingas. “This is absolutely insane! If you told me one year ago today that I’d be top five at the Olympics, I would have said, ‘No, it’s a lie. It’s a straight-up lie.’ So I’m really happy to be here and to have the result that we did. I think it was a really special performance for us. It maybe wasn’t the cleanest, it wasn’t the most technical that we’re capable of.”

“But it had our soul,” said Kolesnik.

“Yeah, and we put our hearts into it,” Zingas added. “I felt it was the most emotion that I’ve given on the ice so far this season. And it just felt magical. I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m really proud of Vadym, and I’m proud of everybody that helped us along the way. I feel so grateful. My parents are in the stands. Vadym’s family, our fans. Our coaches are standing by the boards, supporting us. It just feels like we were prepared for it. It feels like we prepared all for today.”

Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius

Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius picked up a new season’s best of 121.71 points for their modern pulse-driven routine to music by Faithless. The 2024 European bronze medalists produced three level-four lifts and dance spin while the twizzles were graded a level four and three. They also earned positive GOEs on all elements and placed seventh in this segment and overall (204.66).

“The emotions are just so spectacular!” said Reed. “We are really, really proud of ourselves. Proud to have stepped out on this ice and danced our hearts out. It was phenomenal!”

“It was honestly maximum focus and then big, big fun time at the end,” added Ambrulevicius. “The crowd helped us so much after the last twizzle element going into it. It was just phenomenal. Our bodies were burning, our legs were… not legging anymore,” he laughed. “But we looked at each other and that one look said, ‘We are giving it our all.’ It was just phenomenal, so bright.”

While their future is uncertain, the team plans to compete next month at the World Championships.

“And after that, for sure a good vacation!” said Ambrulevicius.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain slipped from fourth to seventh place overall (118.85 / 204.32) after a mishap on a twizzle in their Scottish-themed free dance. Fear caught a toe pick in the element which received negative GOEs, leaving at least five points on the table. The two-time European silver medalists also lost a level on their opening stationary-rotational lift.

“It was just a really costly technical mistake,” said Fear. “Which was tough very early in the program because I kind of knew we kind of lost bronze at that point. But I also really wanted to not let the Olympic experience just disappear because of that. So, it was a battle of taking it in and doing my best the rest of the way while also knowing what I just done. It’s not what we trained and it’s really costly and devastating.”

Rounding out the top 10

France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud finished eighth overall (121.43 / 203.68) after their unique avant-garde routine to music by Björk and Clann.

“It went very well,” said Lopareva. “We skated both programs clean, so we’re very happy that at our first Olympics we were able to show what we’ve worked on and not let the stress get to us. We prepared mentally, and everything went according to the work we put in, so we’re really glad about that.”

The 2025 European silver medalists are looking forward to another Olympic cycle.

“We want to be stronger, better,” said Brissaud. “We just want to continue pushing our originality and our skills for the next Olympics. We’ve been fighting hard for medals and for what we want.”

Spain’s Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck electrified the crowd with their sweeping and atmospheric routine to the Dune: Part Two soundtrack. They placed sixth in the free dance and ninth overall (season’s best 122.96 / personal best 201.49).

“The last time I felt like this was actually in Boston,” said Dieck. “I fully felt like I was in a movie. Yesterday I gave our team a little picture—it was us standing on top of a dune in the desert, both looking out. That’s exactly how I felt today. Fully committed to the story. That’s what made it so special. We knew the crowd was there, but being fully in that moment, and after the final position… it was absolutely amazing. Those are the moments we do this for.”

Next month they plan to compete at their third world championships.

“We just finished on an absolute high at our first Olympics together,” said Dieck of their future. “Worlds are next, and then we’ll see what next season holds. But we’ve definitely said we want to continue. We’re taking it season by season.”

Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada placed 10th overall (120.14 / 199.80) after their arresting free dance to “Nureyev” from The White Crow.

“It felt devastating,” said a stoic Lagha when asked about their scores. “No, I’m kidding. For us, it’s the biggest reward to hear the public clap when we finish. We want people to feel like it’s not a competition anymore.”

“We love this sport,” added Lajoie. “We do it because we love it. At the same time, the scores are not something we can control. That’s why we say the best reward is the crowd—and today we had the crowd. We can be proud of ourselves.”