A historic moment in the Mediolanum Forum
It was pin-drop silent last night, Wednesday, February 11, 2026, in the Mediolanum Forum in Assago, near Milan. As someone who has been around the dance world for more than thirty years, I recognize that specific tension out of thousands. It is the breathless silence before a couple enters the ice for their free dance, knowing that everything – years of training, personal sacrifices, and in this case, a massive amount of media attention – comes down to those four minutes. Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry have pulled off the impossible: they took the gold in ice dance at these Winter Olympics.
For Cizeron, this is his second consecutive Olympic title, but the road to this medal was completely different from the one to his gold in Beijing 2022. While at that time he had a years-long, almost symbiotic relationship with Gabriella Papadakis, he now stood on the ice with Laurence. They have only been a duo since March 2025. In the world of ice dance, where couples often need decades to cultivate that blind understanding, that is truly bizarrely short. Yet in Milan, they delivered both the best rhythm dance and the best free dance, good for a total score of 225.82 points.
The bitter breakup and the accusations
You cannot separate this success from the drama that has unfolded off the ice in recent months. In my thirty years as a dance expert, I have seen many partnerships fail, but the breakup between Cizeron and Papadakis was very painful indeed. In 2024, they suddenly stopped as a duo. While Cizeron continued, Papadakis recently released her book 'Pour ne pas disparaître' (So that I do not disappear). In it, she was merciless toward her former best friend. She described a relationship in which she felt treated like an employee instead of a partner, and spoke of a toxic dynamic.
Cizeron has always dismissed these accusations and spoke of slander himself. He stated that although their bond had crumbled, the collaboration was always based on equality. This kind of public mud-slinging is rarely seen at this level, and it created enormous pressure on his new collaboration with Laurence. According to an article by Sporza, he managed to shake off those accusations and focus completely on the sport.
The lightning-fast rise of Laurence Fournier Beaudry
Let's not forget Laurence Fournier Beaudry in this story. The 33-year-old, Canadian-born dancer, has had an eventful path. She previously competed for Canada and Denmark, but was hastily granted French nationality in November 2025 to participate in these Games with Cizeron. Her previous partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, was suspended due to serious allegations of sexual misconduct, which almost ended her career. The fact that she is now, within a year of starting a new partnership, an Olympic champion, is a world-class achievement.
Technically speaking, their free dance in Milan, skated to the soundtrack of 'The Whale', was truly breathtaking. At Miss Salsa, we always look at the connection between partners. What Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry showed was a fluid, almost liquid movement across the ice. Their lifts were effortless and the synchronicity in the twizzles was perfect, despite the short time they have spent together. With this, they defeated the American favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who had to settle for silver.
What we as dancers can learn from this
From my experience in the dance world, I see an important lesson in resilience here. A partnership in dance is like a marriage; when it breaks, something in your artistic identity breaks too. Cizeron has shown that you can reinvent yourself. Concretely, for us as dancers, this means that a change of partner does not have to be the end of your career, but can actually tap into a new artistic layer.
What is also striking is the 'bubble' they have created. In an environment that was labeled by some as dangerous or toxic – as can be read on Sportnieuws.nl – they chose mutual support. That is the basis of every good dance: trust. Without that trust, you simply cannot perform those risky lifts and deep edges on the ice.
The results in Milan 2026
- Gold: Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Guillaume Cizeron (France) - 225.82
- Silver: Madison Chock / Evan Bates (United States) - 224.39
- Bronze: Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (Canada) - 217.74
It is bizarre to think that this couple skated their first official competition together only three months before the Games. It shows that experience (both are in their thirties) and a massive technical background sometimes carry more weight than training together for years. Cizeron is now the first ice dancer ever to win Olympic gold with two different partners in consecutive Games. That really says everything about his qualities as a leader on the ice.
As the French flag was raised in the Mediolanum Forum, you could see the release of emotion in Laurence. She literally collapsed into Guillaume's arms after their final pose. It wasn't a rehearsed moment, but pure emotion. For them, this gold is more than a medal; it is proof that they were right. Despite the criticism, the books, and the legal red tape surrounding their previous partners, they stand there as the best in the world. This chapter in the history of ice dance will be discussed in dance schools and on ice rinks for a long time, that is one thing for sure.