Madison Chock says ice dance judges should ‘be vetted and reviewed’ after France

The ice dance competition Winter Olympics 2026 It may be over, but many fans can’t stop talking about Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ performance, or France’s controversial victory after the judges’ scores left the Americans just 1.43 points away from gold.

When asked by News themezone if there should be any changes to the way ice dancing is judged in the future, Chock said that “it would definitely be helpful if it was more understandable for viewers, to see a more transparent judging and understand…what’s really going on.”

“I think it’s also important for the skaters that the judges are vetted and reviewed to make sure they’re also giving their best performance,” he continued, “because there’s a lot at stake for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges give us their all too and for it to be a fair and level playing field.”

The Americans were the favorites for Wednesday’s free dance, despite being 0.46 points behind France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron after the rhythm dance portion of Monday’s competition. they published your best score in the world on Monday’s show, scoring 89.72 points, but were then surpassed by the French couple who scored 90.18.

Chock and Bates performed their free dance to “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi show “Westworld” and earned a score of 134.67. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron then skated to the soundtrack of “The Whale” and earned a score of 135.64, beating the American married couple by less than a point.

However, during their free dance program, Cizeron made a mistake during an element called a twizzle (a moving turn with a single foot) and his performance was generally seen as less clean than that of Chock and Bates.

In the end, Beaudry and Cizeron’s total of 225.82 surpassed Chock and Bates’ 224.39. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took bronze, with 217.74.

In ice dancing, each item has a base value, or the number of points it is normally worth; There is also a performance grade, whereby teams receive a positive score if they do well and a negative score if they do poorly. The French were not punished for the error during their twizzles, and there were other moments throughout their performance that could have seemed complicated.

But his scores also surpassed Chock’s and Bates’ ratings for artistic presentation and interpretation of the music. Another subjective scoring factor: The French judge scored the Americans more than seven points less than the French duo, which is a huge margin in ice dancing. Five of the nine judges favored the Americans in their scoring; the other three only slightly scored the French team.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling right now,” Chock said after Wednesday’s competition. “We’ve had the most incredible year: 15 years together on the ice; first Olympics as a married couple. And we put together four of our best performances this week. I think we’re really proud of how we performed here and what we accomplished.”

Bates said Thursday it was his “absolute best performance.” He said he and Chock had not studied the scores, adding that their performance “felt like a winning skate to us and that’s what we’re going to stick with,” The News reported.

They are still discussing their plans for the future. The 2026 World Figure Skating Championships will be held next month in Prague and the Americans are the reigning world champions.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron have been a couple for less than a year. Cizeron previously won gold in the ice dance event at the 2022 Winter Olympics with then-partner Gabriella Papadakis, who retired in 2024. She has since accused Cizeron of abusive behavior, alleging he was “controlling” and “demanding,” News themezone partner BBC News reported. He responded that Papadakis had spread false information about him in a “smear campaign.”

Fournier Beaudry was born in Montreal and spent most of his career representing Canada, but in November he was granted French citizenship. He asked Cizeron to team up after his former teammate, Nikolaj Sørensen, was suspended by Skate Canada after an American skater accused him of sexual assault. The suspension was overturned in June on jurisdictional grounds, but the case is still pending, the AP reported. Fournier Beaudry also maintained his innocence and showed his support for his ex-partner earlier this month.