Madison Chock says ice dance judges should “be vetted and reviewed” after France’s controversial win at Winter Olympics

The ice dance competition of the 2026 Winter Olympics may be over, but many fans can’t stop talking about Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ performance — or France’s controversial win after the judges’ scores left the Americans just 1.43 points shy of gold.

Asked by CBS News if there should be any changes in the way ice dance is judged moving forward, Chock said 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.”

“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,” she continued, “because 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.”

The Americans were the favorites going into the free dance on Wednesday, despite being 0.46 points behind France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron after the rhythm dance portion of the competition on Monday. They posted their world-best score in Monday’s program, earning 89.72 points, but were then topped by the French pair who scored 90.18.

Chock and Bates performed their free dance to “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi show “Westworld” and earned a score of 134.67. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron then skated to the soundtrack from “The Whale” and scored 135.64, edging out the married American couple by less than a point. 

During their free dance program, however, Cizeron made a mistake during an element called a twizzle — a one-footed moving spin — and their performance was generally seen as less clean than Chock and Bates’. 

In the end, Beaudry and Cizeron’s 225.82 total edged out Chock and Bates’ 224.39. Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took bronze, with 217.74.

In ice dancing, every element has a base value, or the number of points it’s normally worth; there’s also a grade of execution, for which teams are scored positive for doing well and negative for doing poorly. The French weren’t marked down for the mistake during their twizzles, and there were other moments throughout their performance that might have appeared messy.  

But their scores bested Chock and Bates’ marks for artistic presentation and interpretation of the music, as well. Another factor of subjective scoring: The French judge scored the Americans more than seven points lower than the French duo, which is a large margin in ice dance. Five of the nine judges favored the Americans in their scoring; the other three only slightly scored the French team higher. 

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” Chock said after the competition on Wednesday. “We have had the most incredible year — 15 years on the ice together; first Olympics as a married couple. And we delivered four of our best performances this week. I think we’re really proud of how we handled ourselves here and what we accomplished.”

Bates said Thursday it was their “absolute best performance.” He said he and Chock hadn’t studied the scores, adding that their performance “felt like a winning skate to us and that’s what we’re going to hold on to,” The Associated Press reported. 

They’re still discussing their plans for the future. The 2026 World Figure Skating Championships are next month in Prague, and the Americans are the reigning world champs.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron have been a pair for less than a year. Cizeron previously won gold in the ice dance event at the 2022 Winter Olympics with then-partner Gabriella Papadakis, who retired in 2024. She has since accused Cizeron of abusive behavior, alleging he was “controlling” and “demanding,” CBS News partner BBC News reported. He countered that Papadakis had spread false information about him in a “smear campaign.”

Fournier Beaudry was born in Montreal and has spent most of her career representing Canada, but she was granted French citizenship in November. She asked Cizeron to team up after her former partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, was suspended by Skate Canada after an American skater accused him of sexual assault. The suspension was overturned in June on jurisdictional grounds, but the case is still pending, The AP reported. Fournier Beaudry has also maintained his innocence, showing her support for her former partner as recently as earlier this month.