Inside the Controversy: France’s Ice-Dance Duo Wins Olympic Gold

Lead

On Wednesday in Milan, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron claimed Olympic gold in the free-dance event, edging Madison Chock and Evan Bates by 1.43 points. The victory came amid public scrutiny: both partners arrived at the Games with recent controversies in their histories and questions about judging. A single French judge’s marks, and visible mistakes in the free dance, intensified debate about fairness and governance in figure skating. The result has prompted calls for review even as the sport’s governing body defended the outcome.

Key Takeaways

• Beaudry (33) and Cizeron (31) won Olympic free-dance gold in Milan with a final margin of 1.43 points.
• The partnership was formed about a year before the Games; Beaudry obtained French citizenship to compete for France.
• Cizeron had retired after a successful run with Gabriella Papadakis, including 2022 Olympic gold and multiple world records; Papadakis later published a memoir alleging troubling behavior.
• Beaudry previously skated with Nikolaj Sørensen, who was suspended for six years by Canada’s Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner for an alleged 2012 assault; that suspension was later overturned by an arbitrator on procedural grounds and remains under review.
• During the free dance, viewers noted visible errors by the French pair while French judge Jézabel Dabois’ marks were substantially higher than several colleagues’, including being the only judge to score the U.S. pair under 130 points on one panel.
• Fans and some athletes have called on the International Skating Union (ISU) for a scoring review; the ISU responded that score variability across judges is normal and expressed confidence in the results.

Background

Guillaume Cizeron rose to prominence skating with Gabriella Papadakis. The duo began their partnership as children, later setting world records and winning 2022 Olympic gold in Beijing before retiring in 2024. Their on-ice achievements established them as one of the most decorated ice-dance teams of their generation.

Behind that record, Papadakis’ recent memoir described a fraught professional relationship with Cizeron, alleging emotional distance and behavior she found unsettling. Cizeron has denied those claims publicly and has sought legal steps to challenge what he described as defamatory assertions. The dispute has become part of public conversation about athlete conduct and personal boundaries in elite sport.

Laurence Fournier Beaudry’s path to the French team followed a split from her former skating partner and boyfriend, Nikolaj Sørensen. Canada’s integrity office initially imposed a six-year ban on Sørensen for an alleged assault from 2012; an arbitrator later set that suspension aside on technical grounds, leaving the matter under administrative review. Beaudry has publicly defended Sørensen during the process, drawing criticism from the accuser and some observers.

Main Event

Last spring Cizeron announced he would come out of retirement and skate with Beaudry; the pair had trained together for many years at the Ice Academy of Montreal and said they believed a competitive return was possible. Beaudry moved to acquire French nationality to make the pairing eligible in international competition, and the new team quickly entered the top tier of contenders.

At the Olympic short program the duo placed first, setting expectations high. In the free dance they committed several clear mistakes that viewers and some commentators judged uncharacteristic for a gold-medal performance. Still, the final marks placed them ahead of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who were widely praised for a near-flawless skate by many fans and analysts.

Attention focused on one judge, Jézabel Dabois of France, whose panel scores were notably higher than several of her peers and who was the outlier in giving Chock and Bates under 130 points on one judge sheet. The presence of Beaudry’s former partner Sørensen in the audience — reported to have whistled during the French ceremony — added to the optics that unsettled parts of the figure-skating community.

The ISU issued a brief statement defending the scoring panel and explaining that variance among judges is part of the system; it declined to change results. Fans and some skating officials, however, said transparency measures and a formal review would be warranted to maintain confidence in judging at the sport’s highest level.

Analysis & Implications

Sport adjudication in judged events always contains subjective elements, and figure skating’s scoring system blends technical element judges with program component assessments. When high-profile errors or controversies coincide with an unexpected result, the perception of bias can grow quickly and erode trust among viewers, athletes, and sponsors alike. That perception can be as consequential as any confirmed rule breach.

For the athletes involved, the fallout is twofold: they hold Olympic titles that will shape their legacies, yet they also face reputational scrutiny that may affect future endorsements, invitations to exhibitions, and their standing within the sport community. National federations and sponsors typically weigh both competitive success and public image when making decisions about support.

Institutionally, the ISU and national associations may confront renewed pressure to tighten conflict-of-interest rules, improve judge selection transparency, and expand post-competition review mechanisms. Past reforms in judged sports have included anonymized judging sheets, expanded panels, and clearer audit trails — reforms that would require political will and coordination across federations.

Finally, the controversy underscores how personal allegations and team histories now travel fast across media and streaming platforms, influencing public interpretation of on-ice results. That dynamic raises questions about how sporting bodies investigate off-ice allegations and handle the reputational spillover when contested athletes return to competition.

Comparison & Data

The table places recent events in context: established careers and prior titles contrast with abrupt partnership changes and pending integrity issues. That mix — elite achievement alongside unresolved allegations — helps explain why this result resonated so strongly beyond sport fans.

Reactions & Quotes

“There was sinister energy around them,”

Adam Rippon, former U.S. Olympian (commenting on Netflix docuseries)

Rippon’s remark, used widely in social coverage, crystallized a strand of public feeling that the pair’s return felt unsettling to some observers. The phrase circulated on social platforms and set the tone for much commentary.

“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges,”

International Skating Union (official statement)

The ISU defended the panel’s marks and declined to alter results, emphasizing procedural normalcy even as petitions and social-media outcry called for review. That institutional stance closes some avenues for immediate change while inviting longer-term scrutiny.

“Logging off xxx,”

Gabriella Papadakis (Instagram post)

Papadakis’ understated post after the result was widely interpreted by fans as a personal response to her former partner’s Olympic return and victory; supporters left messages of solidarity in comment threads.

Unconfirmed

• No formal finding of judge misconduct has been made public; allegations of biased judging remain unproven at this time.
• No publicly released record shows an official conflict-of-interest declaration by French judge Jézabel Dabois specific to this panel; any such links are still unverified.

Bottom Line

The Milan result crowns a technically and politically complicated chapter in modern ice dance: two accomplished skaters claimed Olympic gold amid unresolved personal and integrity questions. The narrow margin and the judge-specific score variance mean the win is unlikely to be viewed purely through the lens of athletic performance.

For the ISU and national federations, this episode will likely prompt renewed conversations about judging transparency, conflict-of-interest safeguards, and how to manage athletes with contested personal histories. For fans and athletes, the episode underlines that Olympic medals now carry both sporting and reputational weight — and that the long-term resolution will depend on formal reviews and possible policy changes.

Sources

• The Cut — media report summarizing the pair’s background and reaction (journalism)
• Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (Canada) — official body that announced the initial suspension of Nikolaj Sørensen (official)
• International Skating Union (ISU) — governing body with statements on judging and competition results (official)
• Netflix — Glitter and Gold — docuseries that includes commentary from athletes and insiders (media)
• CBC Sports — coverage and interviews with athletes and officials (media)