US' Madison Chock and Evan Bates narrowly lose ice dance gold to French pair

MILAN, Italy -- France's Laurence? Fournier? Beaudry and Guillaume? Cizeron captured ice dance gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Wednesday, edging Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates in a remarkable story of reinvention less than a year after they teamed up.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron -- who became the first ice dancer to win-back-to back Olympic titles with different partners after he and Gabriella Papadakis captured gold in 2022 in Beijing -- scored 135.64 with their spellbinding free dance for 225.82 points overall.

Three-time world champions Chock and Bates, who had been undefeated all season, had to settle for silver with a total of 224.39. After chasing an Olympic medal in ice dance for more than a decade, they finally secured one on Wednesday, but it was not the color they had dreamed of.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured bronze with 217.74 for their first Olympic medal. The Canadians, who have weathered numerous personal battles, broke down in tears after completing their emotional routine as they realized they had almost certainly done enough to secure a medal.

Gilles underwent surgery for ovarian cancer in the 2022-23 season after losing her mother to brain cancer in 2018.

--Reuters, special to Field Level Media