Gold with an edge in Milan
Tempers in the skating world are running high after the ice dance final of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan. Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry have taken the gold medal, but their victory is anything but uncontroversial. In my thirty years in the dance world, I have rarely seen a partnership that shot to the top so quickly, but at the same time caused so much stir outside the rink.
The French duo defeated the American favorites Evan Bates and Madison Chock with a minimal difference. The Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier had to settle for bronze. Although the technical superiority of Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry is correct on paper, the path they have traveled to get here is the talk of the town in the corridors of figure skating.
The technique behind the score
If we look purely at the dancing, the performance was impressive. Their rhythm dance to Madonna's 'Vogue' was technically nearly perfect. The jury gave them a lead of 0.46 points over the Americans, mainly due to their superior execution of the step sequence. This is a component that I, as a dance expert, always pay extra attention to; the precision of the footwork patterns and the synchronization between the partners determine the difference between silver and gold here.
In the free dance, they chose the soundtrack of the film 'The Whale'. It was an emotional performance that earned them the highest score of the evening. According to a report by the BBC, Cizeron stated afterwards that from the beginning they had an enormous similarity in their way of training and their approach to the sport. That 'clicking' is important, but in this case also necessary, as they have only been working together as a duo since November 2025.
A storm of controversies
Behind the glitters and the perfect scores, however, lies a story of bitter breakups and legal shadows. Cizeron won gold in 2022 with his longtime partner Gabriella Papadakis. Their breakup was far from friendly. In her recent biography, Papadakis described their relationship as 'unbalanced' and accused Cizeron of controlling behavior. You see these kinds of dynamics more often in top-level sport, but the ferocity of these accusations has not done Cizeron's reputation in the dance world any good.
In addition, there is the issue surrounding Fournier Beaudry. She only received French citizenship in November 2025, a process that critics say was pushed through at record speed to provide Cizeron with a new partner for these Games. Her previous partner and partner in daily life, Nikolaj Sorensen, is also involved in an ongoing investigation into misconduct, which the Guardian describes in a critical article as a 'sinister' cloud over this golden success.
What we can learn from this
From my experience at Miss Salsa, I know that a dance partnership must be based on trust and transparency. What we see here in Milan is a duo that, despite enormous external pressure and personal dramas, is capable of creating a 'bubble'. Cizeron himself indicated that the love for the sport kept them going.
For dancers, this is an interesting case: how do you separate your private life and the politics of the sport from the performance on the floor? The technical level of this pair is indisputable, but public opinion remains divided. In the ice dance world, where subjectivity and presentation go hand in hand with technique, the image of a pair often weighs heavier than one would like to admit.
- Technique: A lead of only 0.46 points in the rhythm dance made the difference.
- Partnership: Only three months of collaboration before the Olympic top.
- Location: The competitions took place at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan.
- Future: The pair has now won five of the six major competitions they participated in.
Whether this duo goes down in history as one of the greatest or as one of the most controversial champions, time will tell. For now, they stand on the highest step of the podium, but the discussion about the price of that success is far from over in Milan.