Madison Chock and Evan Bates had to settle for the silver.
A French judge is facing accusations of rigging an ice dancing competition that cost Evan Bates and Madison Chock the gold medal.
Evan Bates and Madison Chock had a near-flawless performance together in the ice dance competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Many were stunned when the judges declared Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France as the winners over Bates and Chock.
Obviously, there’s no “perfect” system in Olympic events that rely on judges’ scores. But controversy has erupted over the Cizeron-Beaudry victory.
James Dator of SB Nation did a deep dive into the fishy history of Jézabel Dabois, a French judge whose score determined Cizeron and Beaudry as the winners:
“Not only did she judge the French pair 6.45 points higher than the mean, but she undervalued Chock/Bates by -7.19 — giving us a +13.64 delta favoring France over USA in the final score. This represents a staggering 6.37 standard deviation z-score difference across the event.
Five of the nine judges had Chock/Bates ahead of F. Beaudry/Cizeron, but that edge was erased by the wild swing in scoring from this one judge. While it’s a subjective sport, with natural variance in scoring — it doesn’t explain how one person saw the two performances so differently.
When we dig deeper into recent scores from this judge the whole picture of the Olympic scoring gets murkier. At the 2026 European Championships there appears to be similar bias in favor of France.”
As disappointing as the couple must have been about the questionable results, it certainly doesn’t diminish the rest of their accomplishments. Bates and Chock just won a gold in the figure skating team event.
The legendary skating pair also won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. To say nothing of their three gold medals in the World Figure Skating Championships and three victories at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.
Winning the first gold medal is the ultimate dream for all Olympic athletes. Getting the second is a special bonus, and anything after that is just gravy. Bates and Chock are still among the most decorated figure skaters of their era, and they still have those two Olympic golds to cherish.
