Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron seal another world record to win ice dance gold at Winter Olympics

Updated 14/02/2022 at 09:34 GMT

Four-time world champions, now Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are Olympic champions as well. The French pair “decimated the field” to win gold at Beijing 2022, following up their world-record rhythm dance with a 136.15 in the free dance to finish more than six marks ahead of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.

'Pinnacle of entertainment!’ - Papadakis and Cizeron seal gold as ‘art and sport meet’

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron sealed Olympic gold in the ice dance when obliterating the field with a world-record score.

The French pair backed up their world-record display in the rhythm on Saturday with a near-flawless dance in the free on Monday.

Dancing to Elegie by Gabriel Faure, Papadakis and Cizeron scored 136.15 in the free dance to finish on a world-record combined total of 226.98, more than six marks clear of world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.

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The gold is an upgrade on the silver Papadakis and Cizeron won at Pyeongchang four years ago, while this time around it was Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who took bronze in Beijing ahead of American teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates

The final group saw ROC’s Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin go out first, but their 120.98 was not enough to top the standings after Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri produced a 124.37 in the penultimate group.

Guignard and Fabbri’s overall score of 207.05 was the benchmark to beat for the final four pairs, with two sets of Americans up next.

‘As fine an ice dance couple as there’s been in history’ - Papadakis and Cizeron ‘decimate’ field

Chock and Bates, three-time American champions, shot into first when scoring 130.63 in the free dance – enough to go more than 7 points clear of the Italian pacesetters.

Then it was the turn of Hubbell and Donohue, who knew a solid showing would potentially oust their close friends off the podium.

Hubbell and Donohue held a three-point lead over their American teammates after the rhythm dance, and their celebrations were understandably muted when a medal place was guaranteed – a 130.89 enough to go first by more than three points.

Sinitsina and Katsalapov knew 218.02 was the new score to beat, and having gone unbeaten in competition for two years given Papadakis and Cizeron skipped the 2021 season due to Covid, they put in a stunning free dance to go top as a 131.66 put them on 220.51 points.

“It’s just astonishing!” Simon Reed said on Eurosport commentary. “In the team event they weren’t great, but that was a performance that labels them as possible gold medallists.”

France's Gabriella Papadakis and France's Guillaume Cizeron

Image credit: Getty Images

The stage was then set for Papadakis and Cizeron, and the signs were positive after a technical score of 76.65 proved stronger than Sinitsina and Katsalapov’s 73.43.

“Olympic champions!” Reed declared, as a host of their French Olympic teammates applauded from the sidelines.

Reed added: “For four minutes it was exactly at the point where art and sport met, the pinnacle of entertainment – in the most important competition in their lives!”

Former British Olympian Chris Howarth added: “It was absolutely phenomenal, from the first five seconds you know they were on the money. This could be a huge score.”

Indeed, the 136.15 was just short of their own world-record mark in the free but enough to seal a combined total record.

Reed added: “Just short of it [their own free dance world record], but they have won! They lost in Pyeongchang by under a mark, but here they’ve decimated the field.

“As fine an ice dance couple as there has been in history.”