Recap: 2026 Olympic Free Dance Event

By Matteo Morelli | Photos by Melanie Heaney

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games medallists were crowned in Milan: Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won gold, followed by Madison Chock and Evan Bates in silver, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earning bronze.

Event Recap

France won a second consecutive ice dance gold medal with the new team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. In their first season together, they earned a total score of 225.82 points, with 135.64 points for their free dance to put them in the lead by just over point.

“We had such a special time performing on the ice and looking back a year ago when we started dreaming of this, it is pretty incredible to see what we have been through”, Cizeron said.

“We really appreciated the moment tonight and were able to create an atmosphere that was a bit magic,” Fournier Beaudry added. 

The free dance wasn’t perfect but showed that intensity that we have seen throughout the entire season in this programme that took a lot of work to conceive.

“From the beginning, we had a lot of similarities in the way we skated and the way we approached training and curiosity to discover new things and adapt to each other as well”, Cizeron shared. “I think (working on this programme) it was a chance to evolve, a process of discovering each other”.

This gold medal is Cizeron’s third Olympic medal, adding to the gold won in 2022 and the silver in 2018.

This victory has sparked controversies, both from the judges’ scoring of first and second, which created a lot of discussions and confusion between fans, and also because of both athletes’ personal situations with their previous skating partners.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates were hoping to add another gold to their two gold medals to this and the previous Olympics Team Event. They skated both segments with confidence and earned new season bests across the board: their free dance totalled 134.67 points, and their combined final score was 224.39 points.

“We put out our best skate every time we took Olympic ice”, Chock said. “We are very proud of our four performances we had for the Olympics, they were flawless and we couldn’t skate any better, the rest is out of our hands. We did everything we set out to accomplish”.

“We certainly put all of our effort and emphasis in this event”, Bates admitted. “We also put a lot of work in to be able to do the four performances (team events and individual event)”.

Their final result came as a disappointment for the American duo that has almost been undefeated over the last seasons.

“It was a gold medal performance, it was the best we could skate”, Bates said.

“At that point, we did everything we set out to accomplish, we just told each other that we were proud of each other, and we loved each other, and there was nothing more that we could change”, Chock added.

After their programme, they couldn’t hold back the tears, with all Ice Academy of Montreal teams at the side of the rink comforting them.

“There are so many emotions that come through after a week like this, but I think when things are settled, we will be super proud”, Bates said.

This silver medal will hopefully still carry the value that their incredible career has had to date, a testament to who they are as athletes and people. After the final, several athletes spoke out to express how they are inspired by Chock and Bates, and value them as role models.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier delivered the most heartwarming performance of the Olympic final. The Canadian duo gave all they had to skate an incredible free dance to their Vincent programme: sophisticated, classy, filled with depth and emotions. They earned new season bests across the board, with 131.56 points for their free and a combined score of 217.74 points.

“Our main focus for the Olympic Games was to create a moment for ourselves and not focus on anything else, and I think we really created the moment that we wanted to and really let the judging be the judging”, Gilles admitted.

“I think we are so proud of ourselves and what we have accomplished”, Poirier added. “The start of the season was really difficult and challenging for us and, especially after the Grand Prix Final, we had to make a conscious decision each day to believe in ourselves and to believe that what we wanted was possible, and we had to keep feeding ourselves that belief every single day, even when it didn’t really feel real”.

Their reaction when they completed their skate and on the kiss and cry was very moving and showed how much this victory means to them.

“I think we just left everything out on that table, and to be able to soak in that moment and the energy from the crowd and our family members and friends that were there was so beautiful, but that is what it takes to have an Olympic moment like that”, Gilles confessed.

“It has been such a rewarding journey, not necessarily rewarding in all the ways that we anticipated, but that is what makes life so beautiful”, Poirier added. “What makes sports so beautiful is that it takes you on a road you can’t anticipate, you live the fulness of humanity through sport all the time and we are so grateful for all of the incredible moments we have had through skating”.

It is worth remembering how both are incredibly inspiring. Gilles lost her mum to cancer and then had to fight cancer herself. In the mixed zone, she said she was sure her mom was watching from above and right there with her. Poirier is an LGBTQIA+ advocate and took part in the “Out and Proud” event organized by Milan’s Olympics Pride House to share his story as an LGBTQIA+ athlete.

Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri finished in fourth place, earning 125.30 points in their free and a total of 209.58 points.

Their free dance to music from the movie “Diamanti” was skated with elegance and class, and despite a mistake on the twizzles, it showed how talented and how resilient they are, being the only other team other than Chock and Bates to have skated four times in six days.

Guignard shared that their main objective was to come to the Olympics to win a medal, admitting it wasn’t easy to manage four programmes in six days but still knowing it was possible for them to make it happen. They entered the event feeling prepared and were happy to have achieved their goal in front of their home audience in Milano, which is also their training ground.

With an Olympic bronze medal from the Team Event, they can now claim at least one podium finish in all major international events.

This was Guignard and Fabbri’s and Chock and Bates’ fourth Olympic appearance, and the third for Gilles and Poirier. These teams are showing incredible longevity in the field and have collected fantastic results. Neither team confirmed whether this was their last competition or season, but whatever decision will be taken will be met with a celebration of the legacy they will leave to the sport.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik had quite the Olympic debut! This young American team finished in fifth place, earning 123.19 for their free and a total of 206.72 points, greatly exceeding their personal best.

This is an incredible result for a team that has enjoyed a fantastic season, including their first Grand Prix Final qualification and this remarkable top five finish at their first Olympics. They are now aware that they have Worlds coming up next and will enter it feeling that they can compete with the big teams out there.

The other American team of Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko finished in eleventh place with their “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” programme, which they brought back from the 2023/24 season and that proved to have evolved from then. They shared that their goal was to get a feel for the Olympics, and that they will aim to bring a medal home at the next Winter Games.

After their promising start of the rhythm dance event that got them in fourth place and close to the top spots, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were hoping to make history for Great Britain but had to pay the price for some mistakes that costed them precious points, with their free finishing in twelfth place with 118.85 points, for a combined total of 204.32 points and a final seventh place. This result will surely not discourage them from coming back stronger and will probably ignite their desire to attend the next Winter Olympic Games to continue showing what they are capable of.

Also from Great Britain, Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez delivered an elegant performance that secured them new season bests from their free and overall score, after enjoying a new personal best for their rhythm dance.

Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius finished in sixth place, with 121.71 points for their free to club music by Faithless and a total combined score of 204.66 points, a new personal best. They shared that they felt ready to dance their hearts out and that they felt really connected throughout the entire programme.

After failing to qualify for the free program at Worlds, they had to fight to qualify for their first Olympics together, winning the Skate to Milano event in September and therefore having a really long season that still culminated in a fantastic result for the Lithuanian duo at these Olympics.

Also competing at the Skate to Milano event and qualifying for the Olympics were Spain’s Sofia Val and Asaf Kazimov, who opened the free dance, and Australia’s Holly Harris and Jason Chan. Both teams were at their first Olympic experience.

Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France finished in eighth place, with 121.43 points for their free and a total of 203.68 points, enchanting the crowds with their free dance to Icelandic music legend Björk.

Spain’s Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck delivered another fantastic “Dune II” free dance, confirming that it is still one of the most popular programmes this season. They earned 122.96 points for their free, a new season best, and 201.49 points overall, a new personal best. Smart also announced her engagement with life partner Jean-Luc Baker, making her Olympics experience even more memorable!

Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha closed the top ten earning 120.14 points for their free, and a combined total of 199.80 points, all season bests. The other Canadian team of Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain le Gac performed their free dance full of energy to finish in fourteenth place.

Finland’s Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis finished in twelfth place at their second Olympics, showcasing their beautiful tango that was brought back from last season but performed only a couple of times this season due to an injury that affected Versluis in the autumn.

Georgia’s Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin finished in thirteenth place. This was their second Olympics, but the first representing Georgia.

Two Czech teams took respectively fifteenth and sixteenth place: Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler entertained on their free based to music from the movie “The Matrix”, and Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek delivered an energetic Flamenco routine to earn a new season best. Both teams are looking forward to the Worlds Championships, which will be taking place in Prague in March.

Closing the rankings were Sweden’s Milla Ruud Reitan and Nikolaj Majorov, paying the price for a mistake on the twizzles but still enjoying their first Olympics, an event they were certain to join only few weeks before, when Reitan’s Swedish citizenship was confirmed.

Closing Remarks

This final was full of special moments, as well as controversies. With another Olympic cycle reaching its end, we commend the years of hard work that everyone has put into achieving this goal and living their dream.

The Olympics are one of the most special events in an athlete’s life. We hope each team will cherish all the memories and emotions they experienced on Olympic ice for the rest of their lives.