The scandals clouding ‘sinister’ French ice dancers who beat Chock and Bates for gold
The American duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the reigning three-time world champions contentiously missed out on Olympic ice dance gold on Wednesday despite a flawless skate.But the controversy surrounding the event is not merely a debate over artistic and technical merits.Gold went by a narrow margin to the French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.It was a stunning achievement for a partnership that is less than a year old.But the union was forged after the fallout from sexual assault allegations levelled at Fournier Beaudry’s boyfriend and former ice dance partner, while Cizeron is the subject of allegations of abusive conduct from his erstwhile skating partner.
Nikolaj Sørensen, a 36-year-old Danish-Canadian ice dancer who is dating Fournier Beaudry, was banned by the Canadian skating governing body for at least six years in 2024 for “sexual maltreatment” related to allegations that he sexually assaulted an American coach and former skater in 2012.He denied the accusations and the suspension was overturned in 2025 on a technicality relating to questions of jurisdiction.Fournier Beaudry has consistently defended Sorensen.They began skating together in 2012 and started dating the following year.In a recent Netflix documentary series, Glitter & Gold, she said felt like “collateral damage”.
She added: “When they decided to suspend him, it meant that his career was over, which also meant that my career was over … This was extremely difficult because it was not only about skating, it was about my integrity, it was about his integrity,I know my boyfriend 100%,I know him,And we [stood] strong together,”The 31-year-old Cizeron has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by the French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis.
On the ice together since they were 10, the pair won gold in Beijing in 2022.But in a memoir released last month in France, So as Not to Disappear, Papadakis described Cizeron as “often controlling, demanding and critical” and said she refused to skate with him unless a coach was present.She accused him of “blood-chilling coldness” and said she was “terrified by the idea of finding myself alone with him”.Cizeron strongly rejected the claims, lamenting what he called a “smear campaign” and reportedly issuing a cease-and-desist letter.Papadakis, who retired in December 2024, was dropped as a broadcaster by NBC last month after the book’s publication.
The network told the Athletic that the circumstances made it impossible to guarantee that her commentary would be “free of bias – whether actual or perceived”.The allegations have made for an uneasy atmosphere in Italy.In the Netflix series, the former US Olympian turned media analyst Adam Rippon described the Fournier Beaudry-Cizeron partnership as possessing “sinister energy”.Born in Montreal, Fournier Beaudry represented Canada and Denmark before switching her allegiance to France and making her international competitive debut with Cizeron last October.The 33-year-old was granted French citizenship three months ago.
In Milan the French pair, who also won a European Championships title in Sheffield last month, sought to deflect questions about the disputes, insisting they wanted to focus on their skating and exude “gratefulness”.But the woman who accused Sørensen of sexual assault said in a statement to the Canadian Press earlier this month that Fournier Beaudry’s defence of Sørensen fosters “a dangerous environment for skaters who need to report abuse … [and] further enforces the culture of silence in figure skating.”Meanwhile, Chock and Bates, much-garlanded veterans in their fourth Olympics who married in 2024, were emotional after an outcome that Chock described as “bittersweet”.The pair, and many observers, felt their strong routine to a version of the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black was worthy of gold.However, the judges’ decision saw them awarded silver, only 1.
43 points behind the French pair (who skated to saturnine music from the film The Whale) and ahead of the bronze-winning Canadians, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier,“All four performances we had here at the Olympics, we’re very proud of,” Chock told reporters,“They were flawless for us,We couldn’t have skated any better, and we’re super proud with how we took the ice, how we handled ourselves every time,The rest is out of our hands.
”
Winter Olympics: Chloe Kim settles for silver in snowboard halfpipe – as it happened
You can read a full report from Thursday’s halfpipe final here:90.25 Choi Gaon (South Korea) 88.00 Chloe Kim (USA) 85.00 Mitsuki Ono (Japan) --- 84.00 Sara Shimuzu (Japan) 81
Chloe Kim thwarted in bid for Olympic halfpipe three-peat by South Korea’s Choi Gaon
The snowfall coming down on Livigno Snow Park on Thursday night helped produce one of the bigger Olympic upsets in snowboard history, as Chloe Kim’s bid to become the first rider to win three consecutive Olympic halfpipe gold medals fell just short.Kim finished with a best score of 88.00 from her opening run, settling for silver behind surprise winner Choi Gaon of South Korea, whose heroic third run after an early fall earned 90.25 and rewrote the Olympic record books. Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took bronze with 85
The scandals clouding ‘sinister’ French ice dancers who beat Chock and Bates for gold
The American duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the reigning three-time world champions contentiously missed out on Olympic ice dance gold on Wednesday despite a flawless skate. But the controversy surrounding the event is not merely a debate over artistic and technical merits.Gold went by a narrow margin to the French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. It was a stunning achievement for a partnership that is less than a year old. But the union was forged after the fallout from sexual assault allegations levelled at Fournier Beaudry’s boyfriend and former ice dance partner, while Cizeron is the subject of allegations of abusive conduct from his erstwhile skating partner
Gregor Townsend warns England not to underestimate wounded Scotland
Gregor Townsend has warned England against underestimating his Scotland team and believes the hosts can maintain their fine recent Calcutta Cup record in Edinburgh on Saturday. The visitors have only won two of the last eight fixtures between the two countries and Townsend wants his players to feed off the feelgood memories of previous English losses.While last weekend’s deeply disappointing loss to Italy in Rome has generated plenty of external criticism, England have won only once at Murrayfield since 2017. Townsend is expecting his players to bounce back from their Italian setback and says they will be inspired by past successes. “I would hope they don’t fade into irrelevance because our players have evidence that they’ve won in this fixture,” stressed the head coach
Heraskevych’s ‘helmet of memory’ forces IOC on to PR back foot at Winter Olympics | Sean Ingle
Skeleton racer sacrificed his dream of winning a medal and succeeded in putting the horrors of the war in Ukraine back on the agendaTo be an Olympic-class skeleton racer requires extraordinary guts and impeccable nerve, as the corners loom and then whoosh past at frightening speed. So did anybody really believe that Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych would lose his when the world’s eyes were upon him?Not the International Olympic Committee, who flipped between threats of expulsion and sweet talk over the past fortnight, without coming close to changing his mind. And certainly not those of us who have spoken and messaged Heraskevych, and found a man utterly prepared to sacrifice his dream of winning a Winter Olympic medal for a higher purpose.In public and private his message was the same: he would not back down. And if the IOC barred from competing in his “helmet of memory”, which commemorates some of the 600 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed by Russian bombs and bullets since 2022, he would accept his fate
‘It’s emptiness’: banned Ukrainian athlete accuses IOC of fuelling Russia’s propaganda
Vladyslav Heraskevych has accused the International Olympic Committee of doing Russia’s propaganda for them after he was barred from racing in the Winter Games because he wanted to wear a “helmet of memory” in honour of Ukraine’s war dead.In one of the most controversial decisions in recent Olympic history, the Ukrainian skeleton racer was informed only minutes before he was due to compete that his accreditation had been rescinded.It followed a last-ditch meeting in Cortina on Thursday morning with the IOC’s president, Kirsty Coventry, who left in tears after she failed to persuade Heraskevych to change his mind.The IOC has maintained all week that the helmet, which shows the images of 24 athletes and children that died from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, violates its athletes’ charter because the field of play must be free from political expression.However Heraskevych, who had a genuine chance of winning Ukraine’s first medal at these Winter Olympics, has insisted that the helmet is an act of remembrance for the friends he has lost and that it would be a “betrayal” to back down
Jon Stewart calls Maga backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show ‘actually pathetic’
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was never a love story. It was a warning
Actor Catherine O’Hara died of a blood clot in her lungs, death certificate says
‘We recorded it in a kitchen!’ How China Crisis made Black Man Ray
Super Bowl: Bad Bunny, the ads and everything but the football – as it happened
Perth festival 2026: Swan River bursts to life with a stunning trail of stories and light