Free dance preview: Fresh off world record, Papadakis and Cizeron one step closer to Olympic gold

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are one dance away from Olympic gold.

The French ice dancers, four-time world champions, were co-favourites four years ago with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir when the duo suffered a costume malfunction in the rhythm dance and eventually settled for silver.

There was no such fate on Saturday (12 February) in the rhythm dance at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the team breaking their own world record to score a 90.83 and secure a two-point advantage heading into the free dance.

"The past four years, we've been focusing on [this] event, basically, even though we had other competitions," Papadakis told reporters. "All the decisions that we did was for this event, so it was definitely in our mind and something to juggle, but it's what sport is especially at this level, it's a lot of mental gymnastics and mental strength to work on and it's part of the journey."

Reigning world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the ROC are two points behind Papadakis/Cizeron at 88.85, while Papadakis/Cizeron's Montreal training mates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the U.S. sit third (87.13)

Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates (84.14), the ROC's Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin (84.09) and Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (83.52) round out the top five.

See the full current standings here. Find the schedule for Monday (14 February)'s free dance - and where to watch - below.

The free dance is set to take centre ice on Monday inside the Capital Indoor Stadium (local time, Beijing):

Mon., 14 February - 0915 - Ice dance free dance

The schedule builds as the morning goes, with the final two groups featuring the top 10 teams. The penultimate group skates at 1109,