When Team USA ice dancers Madison Chock & Evan Bates came in second place after their incendiary rhythm dance during Monday’s Winter Olympics, I was legitimately so upset I wanted to overturn a dining room table. Yes, I was mad because I’m rooting for “Mr. and Mrs. America” to finally take home their first individual Olympic gold medal in ice dancing, but I was more irate over who had edged them out for first place.
You see, I’m rooting for all of the ice skaters at the 2026 Winter Olympics except the newly-minted French team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron. It’s not that I loathe the French or have an aversion to gorgeous sexy people doing better than Chock & Bates. The problem is I watched Netflix’s new three-part docuseries Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing. The otherwise bland sports doc does a great job of outlining why Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron’s arrival on the scene this past year ruffled so many feathers in the figure skating community.
Guillaume Cizeron and his last partner, Gabriella Papadakis, were titans in the sport, shattering records and blocking other hard-working and talented teams from getting Olympic gold. So when Cizeron came out of retirement last year, he was making this Olympic cycle even more difficult for his peers. However, that’s not even that big of a deal. Athletes come out of retirement all the time. That’s not why so many of my figure skating fan friends and I foaming at the mouth over Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron’s success at this Olympics.
Before Laurence Fournier Beaudry began skating with Guillaume Cizeron last year, the Canadian ice dancer had spent twelve years partnered with boyfriend Nikolaj Sørensen. In late 2024, Sørensen was banned from competing for at least six years after an investigation found him guilty of “sexual maltreatment.” He allegedly sexually assaulted a figure skating coach and former skater in Hartford, Connecticut in 2012. As Glitter & Gold reveals, Fournier Beaudry has not only stuck with Sørensen, but she and Cizeron have defended him.
Sørensen’s accuser released a public statement expressing concern for how the platform given the team by both the Olympics and the Netflix documentary might dissuade other victims of sexual misconduct in the sport to speak out: “The comments of the reigning Olympic champion and a team in contention for the upcoming Olympic title carry weight, and using their voices to publicly undermine a survivor’s truths further enforces the culture of silence in figure skating.”
CBC reports that when Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron were asked about this statement last week, they shrugged the question off.
“We said everything we needed to say about that subject,” Fournier Beaudry said. “We’re focusing on the Olympics and what’s coming.”
Cizeron then refused to answer a follow-up question and the duo promptly left the media event.
Cizeron is also under scrutiny after Papadakis published a memoir in which she describes him as controlling, noting she was afraid to skate with him without a coach present. Cizeron accused Papadakis of launching a “smear campaign” against him. Papadakis then claimed she lost a lucrative commentating gig with NBC because of Cizeron’s response.
As Adam Rippon sums it up in Netflix’s Glitter & Gold, “There is some sinister energy around the partnership.”
So, yeah, I’m nervously tuning into today’s ice dancing free skate hoping that a team with “sinister energy” doesn’t win the Olympic gold this year. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron currently have the edge over America’s sweethearts Chock & Bates, but as Glitter & Gold shows, there are tons of other talented ice dancing teams that don’t have a history of caping for abusers. I’d be equally thrilled for Canada’s Piper Gillis & Paul Pourier or Great Britain’s Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson to squeak ahead of the French team on the podium.
What Time Is Ice Dancing on at the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The 2026 Winter Olympics ice dancing free skate, aka the final, starts at 1:15 PM ET (or 10:15 AM PT).
You can watch all of the 2026 Winter Olympics live with Peacock or wait for the primetime broadcast on NBC later tonight.
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