France's Beaudry, Cizeron win Olympic ice dance gold in upset - ESPN

MILAN — The new French ice dance team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron upset the dominant team of the past four years, American stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and claimed Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Games on Wednesday night.

Beaudry and Cizeron had to follow a season-best performance by the three-time reigning world champions, and they did it with near perfection. The duo was rewarded with a season-best 225.82 points of their own while Chock and Bates finished with 224.39, making Cizeron the first skater to win back-to-back ice dance gold with different partners.

The Canadian team of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the bronze medal with 217.74 points, pulling away from the Italian team of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and the British duo of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson with a deeply emotional free skate.

As for Beaudry and Cizeron, they arrived in Milan with controversy stemming from their ex-partners swirling around them.

This time last year, Beaudry was wondering whether she would even compete this season after Skate Canada banned her partner and longtime boyfriend, Nikolaj Sorensen, amid allegations of «sexual maltreatment.» Beaudry has steadfastly maintained his innocence and the suspension was overturned in June on jurisdictional grounds, but the case is still pending.

Cizeron stepped away from competition after the 2022 season, when he won Olympic gold with Gabriella Papadakis. But the chance to make a comeback with Beaudry, who was ninth with Sorensen at the Beijing Games, was too good to pass up.

Beaudry and Cizeron won every event they entered this season save the Grand Prix Final, when they finished second to Chock and Bates in their only previous head-to-head meeting. But