French dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron finally won the Olympic title, the only one missing from their list.
In four minutes and thirty seconds, on a work by Gabriel Fauré, L’Elégie, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron flew over the free dance and took their revenge on the fate which had deprived them of gold in 2018.
Four years after the misadventure of the dress which had made its own in full rhythmic dance, Papadakis, 26, and Cizeron, 27, have largely imposed themselves, with a total of 226.98 points, world record at the key, ahead of the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (2nd, 220.51 points) and the Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (3rd, 218.02 points).
Four years ago on the Olympic ice in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Papadakis and Cizeron had experienced a clothing misadventure, when the top of the skater’s dress had come off in the first seconds of their short dance. The French dancers had dominated the free dance the next day, but it was around the necks of Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, their rivals and training partners in Montreal, that the gold medal had been passed.
Largely in the lead after the rhythmic dance, they are the first French crowned in figure skating since 2002 and the duo Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat, already in ice dancing.
“It’s like being in a washing machine of emotions,” said Guillaume Cizeron.
Since Pyeongchang, the French duo have experienced only one defeat (European Championships 2020), but have also experienced a delicate period by remaining twenty months, until last October, without skating in competition, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.