A major scandal has erupted at the Winter Olympics, with a French judge accused of deliberately rigging the figure skating ice dance competition to ensure a gold medal for her country. The controversy centres on the narrow victory of France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, who claimed gold with a total score of 225.82 points.
Narrow Margin Sparks Immediate Backlash
The French pair finished just 1.43 points ahead of American favourites Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who had won three consecutive world championships in the same event. This slim margin immediately raised eyebrows, but the situation escalated when the individual scores of French judge Jezabel Dabouis were scrutinised online.
Discrepancies in Scoring Revealed
In the ice dance competition, skaters perform both a rhythm dance and a free dance across two days. After Monday's rhythm dance, Fivenier Beaudry and Cizeron led, with five judges placing them first compared to three for Chock and Bates. However, the scoring variations were already noticeable.
During the rhythm dance, five of the six judges who rated the French pair highest still had the Americans within 3.5 points. Judge Dabouis, however, awarded her compatriots a substantial 5.74-point advantage over Chock and Bates—the largest margin among all judges.
Free Dance Scoring Intensifies Suspicion
The pattern became even more pronounced during Wednesday's free dance. While five of the nine judges scored Chock and Bates highest, Dabouis again showed significant bias, rating the French routine a massive 7.71 points higher than the Americans.
Notably, no judge who placed Chock and Bates first in the free dance gave them more than a 4.1-point advantage over the eventual winners, including an American judge. This stark contrast has fuelled allegations of nationalistic judging.
International Response and Athlete Reactions
The International Skating Union has issued a statement defending the judging process. A spokesperson emphasised that "a range of scores given by different judges in any panel" is normal and that mechanisms exist to mitigate variations. The ISU expressed "full confidence in the scores given" and commitment to fairness.
American skaters Chock and Bates addressed the controversy in an interview with NBC News. Chock described experiencing "a roller coaster of emotions" in the preceding 24 hours, while Bates acknowledged the subjective nature of judged sports, stating "sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn't go your way."
The allegations have cast a shadow over what should have been a celebratory moment for the French champions, raising serious questions about judging integrity in Olympic figure skating competitions.
