Figure Skating-French ice dance duo strike gold less than year into partnership

MILAN, Feb 12 : France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron are the unlikely protagonists of one of the most remarkable reinventions of the Winter Games. 

Their ice dance gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics, sealed with Wednesday's lyrical free programme to music from The Whale movie, capped a whirlwind season that began less than a year ago when Cizeron approached Fournier Beaudry with an unexpected proposal - over a glass of wine - to skate together. 

Neither had been actively competing when the idea surfaced, but within months they had transformed into Olympic champions.

"A year ago, we allowed ourselves to dream," the 31-year-old Cizeron told Reuters. 

"We were very, very ambitious. And we (had been) missing that, we had been missing the training also, but I think we were missing the ambition, the curiosity, the desire to go further, to push ourselves. 

"And then the need to see what we were still capable of on the ice together. There were a lot of steps to get to this result (on Wednesday). The stars aligned so perfectly, with a perfect precision and timing so perfectly."

Competing in only their fifth international event since teaming up in March, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron scored 225.82 points, edging Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates (224.39).   

The French duo's partnership came under intense scrutiny.

Cizeron's previous partner Gabriella Papadakis, who retired after the two won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, released a memoir labelling Cizeron "controlling" and "demanding."

He called it a "smear campaign" and said he had instructed his lawyers to halt the defamatory claims.

Fournier Beaudry's partner Nikolaj Sorensen was suspended in 2024 for six years for sexual maltreatment. He was investigated