MILAN — Madison Chock and Evan Bates stood expressionless on the Olympic podium.
They had just received their silver medals in figure skating ice dance and now, inches away, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron were bending down to get the gold medals Chock and Bates had so desperately wanted.
After 15 years together, Chock and Bates arrived in Italy looking for the fairy-tale ending to a storied career. It marked their fourth Olympic Games together, and Bates’ fifth appearance, and they had hinted it would be their last. In a partnership, on and off the ice, that had seen them win three world championships and seven national titles, in addition to securing their second Olympic team gold over the weekend, the individual gold medal was all that remained.
They had fought fiercely over the past four years, and had been the overwhelming favorites entering the competition. On Wednesday night, they were so close — 1.43 points and only one spot over on the podium — but it was not to be.
They graciously smiled for photographs, and congratulated Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, as well as bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Porrier of Canada, but their disappointment was palpable.
With her face stained with tears, and her voice cracking as she spoke to reporters, Chock called it “bittersweet” but said she wouldn’t change a thing.
“We really gave it our best,” she said. “And that’s what we set out to do coming to these Games. So I think we’ve got a lot to be proud of and a lot to be grateful for because we’ve had an incredible career and we’ve been so well supported by our families and our coaches by each other. And sometimes that’s just how it shakes out.”
Four years ago, Chock and Bates arrived in Beijing in search of a medal.
They had twice earned a medal at the world championships, and were fresh off their third national title but had never done better than ninth place at the Olympics.
In 2022, they had a chance and were among the legitimate contenders for not just a medal, but gold.
They did achieve it. Sort of.
Competing in the free dance portion of the team event — a competition they had been passed over for in 2014 and 2018 — the pair won their segment with a personal best score to help lift the United States to a silver medal. But the podium remained elusive.
A failed drug test by Kamila Valieva, a member of the gold medal-winning team representing the Russian Olympic Committee, was announced during the competition, resulting in the postponement of the medal ceremony. It would take nearly two years for the results to become official.
The ROC team had to drop Valieva’s scores and moved the U.S. from third to first. The United States team was declared Olympic gold medalists and received their gold medals at a ceremony in Paris in 2024 — 2½ years later.
But in the individual ice dance event, there would be no medal. They finished in fourth place after a disappointing rhythm dance ultimately kept them out of contention. “We are disappointed we didn’t medal, but we are still proud of our career and what we have achieved,” Chock said at the time.
Ice dance is a sport that often rewards longevity. There is added value in a pair being together for years, building not only trust, but also a visible connection — sometimes romantic — and a synchronicity. Chock and Bates have all of that in droves.
Though many thought 2022 would be their final Games, and they would perhaps retire after the world championships in 2023, they continued. As almost all of their biggest competitors, including gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Cizeron, and the top Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who had won the Olympic bronze, walked away from the sport, it seemed as if it would finally be their turn.
For most of this four-year Olympic cycle, that was the case. Chock and Bates have been the dominant force, winning all three world championships and national titles, as well as three of the four Grand Prix finals, and just about everything else.
Throughout that stretch, perhaps the only team that had been viewed as a true rival — before the controversial pairing of Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron at the start of the current season — probably would have been Gilles and Porrier, the two-time world silver medalists.
But even Gilles credited them for bringing out the best level from her and Porrier.
“I’ve grown up with them and then now they’ve been competitors and we need that friendly competition to be able to skate our best because if we’re not pushing each other, what’s the fun in that? What’s the fun in just being like an easy chase?” Gilles said to ESPN.
They’ve also been anointed as the emotional leaders, and the heartbeat of the American contingent. Having won both of their segments during the team event Friday and Saturday, contributing 20 points to the team’s final total of 69 points, the two sat with the rest of their teammates for the men’s free skate, the final portion of the event.
Bates was seen with his arm around Amber Glenn, who had finished the women’s free skate portion earlier in the day in a disappointing third place, as they waited for the final scores, ready to console her if they ended up with the silver.
“We’re being led by Evan and Maddy, who are veterans, and I like to call them Mr. and Mrs. America,” Glenn told reporters during the team event. “They are absolutely incredible people and incredible athletes.”
Glenn previously told ESPN the pair had given her helpful advice throughout the season ahead of her first Olympic Games.
“They’ve told me to take it all in stride and just enjoy all of these fun opportunities I’m getting,” Glenn said. “Even things that are exhausting, I’ll still be able to look back on in 20 years and be like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I got to do that.’ It’s been great to be able to learn from them and their experiences.”
After the podium ceremony Wednesday, many fellow ice dancers, from the United States and elsewhere, came over to console them and offer their support. Chock was flocked, over the rinkside barrier, by several of her training mates. She appeared to be crying as they embraced her in a group hug.
“They’ve had an amazing career,” American teammate Emilea Zingas, who finished in fifth place with partner Vadym Kolesnik in their Olympic debut, said. “I’m in awe of [Chock] all the time, and I think they skated fabulously today. It’s disappointing to me that they didn’t get the gold, but they’re my favorites. If it was my gold to give, I’d give it to them.”
Chock and Bates did get their moment to stand atop the Olympic podium with Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea on Sunday.
But, in addition to harming their skates and requiring late blade alterations, Chock and Bates had to be back for the individual event the following day to start their quest for the last remaining piece in an otherwise completed puzzle.
On Monday night, less than 24 hours after the team event concluded, Chock and Bates were left stunned. Following a rhythm-dance program they were clearly happy with, the judges did the previously unthinkable. They scored them lower than Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who had taken the ice almost two hours earlier in one of the first groups.
“I didn’t see that one coming,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said on NBC after Monday’s scores were announced.
But, despite any confusion or frustration, they were not deterred and remained focused on their ultimate goal.
“The game is always on, and you should know us by now, we’re not changing anything,” a resolute Chock told reporters moments later in the crowded mixed zone. “We’ve got this locked in, we know ourselves, we know our routine, and we got this.”
On Wednesday night, with their moms seated in the front row filming seemingly every moment on their phones, the two were very much locked in. Skating a matador-themed program set to a flamenco version of “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones — she as the matador and he as the bull — the duo earned a season’s best score of 134.67 to take over the lead.
They then had to sit and wait, in reserved seats for the leaders, as Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron took the ice. Chock and Bates held hands as they anxiously looked on. When the final scores were announced, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron screamed with excitement. Chock and Bates tried their best to smile.
For much of the rest of the night — on the podium, during photographs and when speaking to reporters — the two did their best to hold back their tears and often had stoic expressions on their tear-stained faces. Bates acknowledged to reporters in the mixed zone that even in their disappointment, he knew one day they would be “super proud” of what they had accomplished. He added they weren’t sure of their future in the sport.
After sitting silently and stone-faced, in between Bates and Cizeron, for most of the news conference featuring all of the medalists, Chock couldn’t help but show a glimpse of some of her signature fight, the one that has made her and Bates so successful over all these years.
If this is in fact the end of their story as competitive ice dancers, Chock made it clear they did everything they could for a fairy-tale finish and there was simply nothing else they could have done.
And that ending, while not as satisfying or as perfect, just might have to be enough.
“I think we put out our very best skates every time we took Olympic ice,” Chock said. “All four performances we had here at the Olympics, we’re very proud of. They were flawless for us. We couldn’t have skated any better and we’re super proud of how we took the ice, how we handled ourselves every time and the rest is out of our hands.”
