Gold medalists Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France wave as silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States look on after the the ice dancing free skate in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

MILAN — Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron arrived at the Milan Cortina Olympics amid a swirl of controversy, with the French ice dancers hoping to upset the dominant American duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates when it mattered most.

They will leave with a gold medal.

Maybe a little bit more controversy, too.

Beaudry and Cizeron answered a season-best free dance by Chock and Bates with a season best of their own Wednesday night, giving them 225.82 points and the top step of the podium. Chock and Bates finished with 224.39 and a bittersweet silver medal after having lost just four times in the four years since they finished fourth at the Beijing Games.

“We’re still in shock,” said Cizeron, who also became the first skater to win back-to-back ice dance gold with different partners, having won previously with Gabriella Papadakis. “Looking back a year ago, when we started dreaming this, it’s pretty incredible.”

There were some who viewed their victory as unbelievable.

Cizeron made several mistakes, including a glaring one during his twizzle sequence, while Chock and Bates were nearly perfect. Yet the French judge favored the French skaters by nearly eight points in the free dance, while five of the nine judges favored the American team. The other three that gave top marks to Guillaume and Cizeron did so by a slim margin.

“I feel like in life, sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way, and that’s life in sports,” said Bates, who along with Chock won a second straight gold medal in the team event earlier in the Winter Games. “It’s a subjective sport. It is a judged sport. But I think one fact that is indisputable is that we delivered our best. We skated our best.”

The Canadian team of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the bronze medal with 217.74 points, pulling away from the Italian team of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and the British duo of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson with a deeply emotional free skate.

“I usually prefer Guillaume and Laurence,” Fabbri said, speaking candidly following the medal ceremony. “But today, in my opinion, they didn’t skate so well. So I think Madison and Evan would have deserved to win.”

As Beaudry and Cizeron’s winning score was read, Chock and Bates joined the crowd inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena in applauding them.

Then, an hour later, Chock was fighting back tears in a tunnel far from the ice.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” she said. “We have had the most incredible year — fifteen years on the ice together. First Olympics as a married couple. And we delivered four of our best performances this week. I think we’re really proud of how we handled ourselves here and what we accomplished.”