Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron accuses ex-ice dance partner of smear campaign

Olympic ice dance champion Guillaume Cizeron said Tuesday his former on-ice partner Gabriella Papadakis is spreading lies about him in the lead-up to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

The French skater, who now competes with Laurence Fournier Beaudry, said he is the victim of a smear campaign fuelled by a book written by Papadakis, So as Not to Disappear, that will be released later this week.

Papadakis and Cizeron became one of the most decorated duos in the history of ice dance before announcing the end of their sporting partnership in December 2024. During their glittering career, they were credited with some of the most innovative and clinical sequences to music that figure skating has seen.

They broke their own world record in claiming gold at the Beijing Games and won an Olympic silver medal, five world championships and five European Championships. The pair won the Grand Prix Final twice.

In excerpts of her book published by French media, Papadakis described a deeply unbalanced relationship with Cizeron. She wrote about a "controlling" and "demanding" partner and expressed a feeling of "being under his grip" that settled in over the years.

Cizeron questioned the timing of the release, just weeks before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Feb. 6.

"In the face of the smear campaign targeting me, I want to express my incomprehension and my disagreement with the labels being attributed to me," Cizeron said. "These allegations arise at a particularly sensitive time … thereby raising questions about the underlying intentions behind this campaign. I also wish to denounce the content of the book, which contains false information, attributing to me, among other things, statements I have never made and