Figure skating-Mighty Montreal ice academy skaters vie for gold at Milano Cortina

MILAN, Feb 10 : On most mornings this season at the Ice Academy of Montreal, triple world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were carving patterns into the ice just metres away from their French rivals, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.

Thirteen of the 23 ice dance teams competing at the Milano Cortina Olympics come from the same unlikely place: a rink in Montreal where the best in the world share the same coaches and - in some cases - will try to beat each other for Olympic gold.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron edged Chock and Bates by less than a point - 90.18 to 89.72 - in Monday's rhythm dance, making for a thrilling showdown in Wednesday's free programme.

The academy known as I.AM, and founded in 2014 by former Canadian double world silver medallists Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, alongside French coach Romain Haguenauer, has become the gravitational centre of modern ice dance.

They had one team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but boasted seven of the top 10 at last year's world championships in Boston.

It is an odd ecosystem, where rivals know every rise and fall in each others choreography, and can hear hesitation in a lift or the slightest twizzles misstep.

But it is a place where the best in the world gather not despite their rivalry, but because of it, with a philosophy built on openness rather than secrecy.

"I think we get a lot of energy from training all together, and we have a really common love for the sport and a deep respect for each other's work," said Cizeron, the reigning Olympic gold medallist and five-times world champion with previous partner Gabriella Papadakis.

"As much as we're in our bubble, and we're all very competitive, we also try to appreciate each other's work and each