French Ice Dancers Defend Gold Medal Amid Olympic Judging Controversy
French ice skating champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron have defiantly addressed the cheating allegations that have overshadowed their gold medal victory at the Winter Olympics. The pair, whose personal lives have both been engulfed in separate scandals, triumphed in the ice dancing competition with a total score of 225.82, narrowly beating American rivals Madison Chock and Evan Bates by just 1.43 points.
Judging Scandal Clouds Olympic Triumph
However, their achievement in Milan-Cortina was immediately shrouded in controversy after French judge Jezabel Dabouis was accused of rigging her votes to boost her country's standing, thereby demoting the American team to the silver medal position. Despite these serious allegations, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron have now publicly dismissed claims of favoritism, insisting they refuse to let criticism overshadow their historic win.
Speaking on French radio, the gold medalists claimed they should have won by an even greater margin, arguing they performed a riskier program than their American competitors. "We had the goal of winning by five to seven points, but we made a few mistakes that cost us three or four points," Cizeron revealed during an appearance on the Super Moscato Show on RMC.
Technical Explanation and Mental Battle
The French skaters explained that the point deduction stemmed from a minor loss of balance while exiting a level four maneuver. "He didn't really make a mistake, he just decided to be creative in the moment," Fournier Beaudry joked about her partner's performance. The gold medalists appeared to suggest that their belief in achieving a higher score with a perfect routine should dispel any accusations that their victory was illegitimate.
Cizeron admitted to experiencing significant mental pressure during the competition, questioning whether he had cost his team their shot at gold. "It's a mental battle to keep going and link the elements together, to get back into it and go for the points," he explained. "You have to cut off those negative thoughts that come in very quickly, and that's where twenty years of experience come into play."
American Reaction and Petition Movement
Despite the French pair's insistence, Olympic fans and the American silver medalists remain unconvinced. Thousands of supporters have signed a Change.org petition calling for the International Olympic Committee and International Skating Union to intervene and launch a formal investigation into the voting process, though no action has been taken thus far.
In fact, the ISU has chosen to stand by the judging panel, issuing a statement late Thursday defending the scoring process. "It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations," the organization stated, adding it has "full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness."
American Skaters Call for Transparency
Chock and Bates have since spoken to CBS News about the dubious judging, following allegations the competition was rigged against them. "It would definitely be helpful if it's more understandable for the viewers, to just see more transparent judging and understand... what's really going on," Chock stated.
She continued: "I think it's also important for the skaters that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are also putting out their best performance. There's a lot on the line for the skaters when they're out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges also giving us their all and for it to be a fair and even playing field."
Questionable Scoring History
Analysis reveals that Judge Dabouis favored Beaudry and Cizeron by nearly eight points over the three-time world champions in the free dance competition. This margin proved so significant that if her score was removed from the equation, Chock and Bates would have won the gold medal instead. The American pair have little recourse if the global governing body remains unwilling to investigate the scoring discrepancy.
This incident marks not the first time Dabouis has submitted questionable scores for the French skaters. Last year, at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Japan, the French pair missed one element of their routine and suffered a fall that would typically keep them off the podium. Despite these errors, Dabouis rewarded them with a superb score that secured them a silver medal. The French judge also demonstrated a wide margin favoring her country during the Olympic rhythm dance competition, where they again defeated the American team.
Personal Scandals and Legal Battles
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron only formed their partnership in March of last year, but their brief career together has been dogged by toxic allegations about their respective pasts. Fournier Beaudry has faced intense scrutiny over her relationship with boyfriend and former skating partner Nikolaj Sorensen, who was suspended in 2024 following allegations of a 2012 sexual assault involving a former skater and coach.
Though Sorensen denied the accusations and his six-year suspension from Skate Canada was eventually overturned on a technicality, the scandal effectively ended his competitive career. Fournier Beaudry recently lamented the situation in the Netflix docuseries 'Glitter & Gold', claiming the ordeal ruined her partner's life.
Meanwhile, Cizeron arrived in Milan facing explosive claims from his former gold-medal-winning partner, Gabriella Papadakis. In an interview promoting her memoir 'So as Not to Disappear', Papadakis described Cizeron as "controlling, demanding and critical," writing that she felt under his "control" and was "terrified" of being alone with him during their time as a world-leading pair.
Cizeron has vehemently denied these allegations, labeling them a "smear campaign" and confirming he is pursuing legal action. "I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to me," he told Reuters. "The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious."
