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<\/a>Let\u2019s set the scene:<\/p>\nCapital Indoor Stadium, Beijing \u2014 February 14, 2022<\/p>\n
The 2018 Olympic Silver Medalists in ice dance take the ice as the final competitors in the 2022 Olympics. After setting a world-record score in the rhythm dance, they back it up with a world-record setting free dance.<\/p>\n
The long-awaited gold is theirs, earned with the highest-ever score in Olympic ice dance history, 226.98 points.<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t have scripted it better.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour years ago, we were pretty disappointed the way we skated on the short dance. Above everything else we wanted to have a good experience here. We wanted to take joy and pleasure while skating and have those Olympic moments we have been dreaming of,\u201d Cizeron said. \u201cIt fueled us to want that gold medal more than anything else. We never worked that hard for a specific goal throughout our career. All our gold medals kind of came one after the other without us specifically wanting that as a precise goal. This year we gathered the courage to want to win. That was a pretty important shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Papadakis echoed her partner, saying, \u201cFor years this was the only medal that we wanted and the past four years were just about that moment. We worked a lot and it was very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last two years, in particular, were filled with challenges for the team. The five-time European Champions unexpectedly lost their title in 2020, and both partners got sick with COVID-19 in July 2020. With opportunities to compete in front of an audience few and far between in 2021, they elected to skip the 2021 World Championships to start preparations for the Olympic season, for that gold medal that was the only acceptable outcome for the duo.<\/p>\n
That extra preparation time paid off, especially in their inventive rhythm dance, which featured waacking, a form of street dance created in underground gay clubs in the 1970s in Los Angeles that emphasizes arm and hand movements. It may have started in the disco era, but waacking is thriving on Instagram and Tik Tok in 2022. Papadakis and Cizeron worked with a waacking specialist in Montreal to perfect the style.<\/p>\n “We started working on it last year. We knew the theme [of the rhythm dance] is urban dance. We tried different kind of dances and we started doing some waacking dance\u2026and we fell in love with it,\u201d Papadakis said. \u201cWe did the choreography and we started working on the program. It really is a program that we love so much.”<\/p>\n This Olympic title is the second for a French ice dance team; Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won in Salt Lake City in 2002.<\/p>\n Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the Russian Olympic Committee took the silver medal, with two performances that improved upon their showing in the Olympic Team Event. They finished second in both segments of that event, but here in the individual ice dance event they looked much steadier and improved on both their segment scores.<\/p>\n “I was just so hungry, so focused. I feel like I brought forward all of my best qualities to make this performance as successful as it was,\u201d Katsalapov said. “I am very glad it happened as it did and that we skated to an Olympic medal.”<\/p>\n Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of Team USA took the bronze medal, in a moment of redemption after finishing second at the 2022 U.S. Championships and after a late-program stumble kept them off the Olympic podium back in 2018.<\/p>\n They earned personal best scores in the rhythm dance and free dance for a new personal best total score of 218.02.<\/p>\n \u201cStanding on an Olympic podium is absolutely a mix of pride, joy, elation, relief, and all the stress that’s been building up for an entire season,\u201d Donohue said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really wanted to be on the podium. And I think fourth place sometimes can be one of the hardest places to finish,\u201d Bates said. \u201cBut the fact that there are only three spots on the podium is what makes this sport so fierce and so loved by so many people and the fans at home and the athletes, too. We want the competition to be strong and deep, and that’s exactly what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, the performance is what mattered most to the duo, with Chock saying, \u201cIt was so exhilarating to perform today and to finish our Olympic experience off with that performance. And I’m just really proud of Evan and how we trusted ourselves and did the work. We’re very pleased with that. And to go home knowing that we did two solid performances is a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n The free dance was a controversial choice, with some fans loving the concept and others not appreciating it, but Chock and Bates stayed committed to their vision for the program all season.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we’re going for is an evolution of at first being uncertain of one another and having a guard up. Then we have conflict and resolution. Then it’s like a beautiful anthem. In the end, it’s all about learning to find love and acceptance for people who look different than you or people who are from a different place than you are,\u201d Bates said. \u201cThat was the message that we wanted to bring to the Olympic stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Chock and Bates weren\u2019t the only team to pursue an inventive free dance theme this year. Beyond the podium, there was lots of creativity on display, particularly from the teams of the Ice Academy of Montreal.<\/p>\n Great Britain\u2019s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson performed to \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d showcasing stunning and unique lifts en route to their 10th<\/sup><\/span> place finish. Canada\u2019s Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha took flight as birds, performing a high-energy program to the \u201cRio\u201d movie soundtrack and finishing in 13th.<\/p>\n Americans Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker finished in 11th<\/sup><\/span> place in their Olympic debut. This year marked their 10th<\/sup><\/span> season as a team, and it started with challenges: Hawayek sustained a concussion in practice over the summer and they weren\u2019t able to compete until November, at Rostelecom Cup.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>In the rhythm dance, Sinitsina and Katsalapov earned a personal-best 88.85, 3.8 points higher than in the Olympic Team Event. In the free dance, they improved on their team event score by 3.49 points, earning 131.66 points for a total score of 220.51. It was less than a point (0.66) shy of their personal best, set at the 2021 World Championships.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cZach and I wanted to change the way we approached the competition and the preparation going into it, in comparison to our experience in 2018. And we trained way better mentally, we were more stable. Our friendship is tougher. The day-to-day joy of training has been so much different than other years,\u201d Hubbell said. “And so when we were here, we wanted to take in the magic of the Olympics, but not try to overdo it, and just trust that whatever we put out would be enough to end up on the podium. We’re very happy and grateful to our training center and coaches and everyone involved that helped prepare us because here we are and we were able to rely on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Their U.S. teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates, in their third Olympics together and Bates\u2019 fourth, finished in fourth place. They went into the free dance trailing by 2.99 points, and even a personal-best performance of their \u201cAlien and the Astronaut\u201d free dance wasn\u2019t enough to vault onto the podium.<\/p>\n<\/a>Spain\u2019s Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz earned a personal best score with their \u201cMask of Zorro\u201d free dance and an 8th<\/sup><\/span> place finish. They performed the program with verve and energy, especially the sword fighting flourishes throughout, not showing any signs of fatigue after an intense season-long battle to earn Spain\u2019s lone Olympic ice dance spot.<\/p>\n