A silver ending to a golden Olympic career for Madison Chock and Evan Bates

MILAN — Madison Chock and Evan Bates were expressionless on the Olympic podium.

They had just received their silver medals in figure skating and ice dancing and now, just inches away from them, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron were leaning toward winning the gold medals that Chock and Bates so desperately wanted.

After 15 years together, Chock and Bates arrived in Italy in search of a fairytale ending to a storied career. It was their fourth Olympics together and Bates’s 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, as well as clinch their second Olympic team gold over the weekend, the individual gold medal was all that remained.

They had fought hard over the past four years and were the heavy favorites entering the competition. On Wednesday night, they were so close – 1.43 points and just one place on the podium – but it didn’t turn out to be that way.

They graciously smiled for photos 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 breaking as she spoke to reporters, Chock called it “bittersweet” but said she wouldn’t change anything.

“We really did our best,” she said. “And that’s what we decided to do coming into these Games. So I think we have 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 how it goes.”

Four years ago, Chock and Bates arrived in Beijing in search of a medal.

They had won two medals at the world championships and had just won their third national title, but had never done better than a ninth place at the Olympics.

In 2022, they had their chance and were among the legitimate contenders not just for a medal, but for gold.

They succeeded. 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 duo won their segment with a personal best to help the United States win a silver medal. But the podium remained elusive.

A failed doping test for Kamila Valieva, a member of the gold medal-winning team representing the Russian Olympic Committee, was announced during the competition, leading to the postponement of the medal ceremony. It will take almost two years for the results to be official.

The ROC team had to abandon Valieva’s scores and moved the United States from third to first place. Team USA was declared the Olympic gold medalist and received their gold medal in a ceremony in Paris in 2024, two and a half years later.

But in the individual ice dancing event, there would be no medal. They finished in fourth place after a disappointing rhythm dance ultimately kept them out of the competition. “We’re disappointed we didn’t medal, but we’re still proud of our career and what we accomplished,” Chock said at the time.

Ice dancing is a sport that often rewards longevity. There is added value in being together for years, building not only trust, but also visible – sometimes romantic – connection and synchronicity. Chock and Bates have it all in spades.

Even though many thought 2022 would be their last Games and that they would perhaps retire after the world championships in 2023, they continued. With nearly all of their biggest competitors, including gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Cizeron, as well as top Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who won Olympic bronze, leaving the sport, it seemed like it would finally be their turn.

This has been the case for most of this four-year Olympic cycle. Chock and Bates were 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 this period, the only team that had been considered a real rival – before the controversial duo Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron at the start of the current season – would probably have been Gilles and Porrier, double silver medalists at the world championships.

But even Gilles gave them credit for bringing out the best in her and Porrier.

“I grew up with them and now they’re competitors and we need that friendly competition to be able to skate our best, because if we don’t push ourselves, what’s the fun in that? What’s the fun in being like an easy chase?” » Gilles told ESPN.

They were also designated as the emotional leaders and heart of the American contingent. After winning both of their segments in the team event Friday and Saturday, contributing 20 points to the team’s final total of 69 points, the two men sat down 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 finished with silver.

“We’re led by Evan and Maddy, who are veterans, and I like to call them Mr. and Mrs. America,” Glenn told reporters at the tag team event. “They are absolutely incredible people and incredible athletes.”

Glenn previously told ESPN that the two men gave him helpful advice throughout the season, ahead of his first Olympics.

“They told me to take it all in stride and just enjoy all these fun opportunities that are available to me,” Glenn said. “Even the things that are exhausting, I can still look back on them in 20 years and say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I have to do this.’ It’s great to be able to learn from them and their experiences.”

After the podium ceremony on Wednesday, many fellow ice dancers, from the United States and elsewhere, came to console them and offer support. Chock was herded, over the fence at the edge of the rink, by several of her training buddies. She appeared to be crying as they embraced her in a group hug.

“They had an incredible career,” said American teammate Emilea Zingas, who finished fifth with partner Vadym Kolesnik in their Olympic debut. “I am in awe of [Chock] all the time, and I think they skated fabulously today. It’s disappointing that they didn’t get gold, but they’re my favorites. If it was my gold to give, I would give it to them. »

Chock and Bates had the opportunity to stand on the Olympic podium with Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea on Sunday.

But, in addition to damaging their skates and requiring late blade modifications, Chock and Bates had to return for the individual event the next day to begin their quest for the last remaining piece of an otherwise completed puzzle.

Monday night, less than 24 hours after the team event ended, Chock and Bates were stunned. After a rhythm dance routine that they were clearly happy with, the judges did the previously unthinkable. They had lower scores than Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who had taken the ice nearly two hours earlier in one of the first groups.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said on NBC after Monday’s results were announced.

But despite any confusion or frustration, they remained undeterred and focused on their ultimate goal.

“The game is still 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 have this locked down, we know ourselves, we know our routine and we have it figured out.”

On Wednesday night, while their mothers sat in the front row and filmed seemingly every moment on their phones, the two were very closed off. Skating a matador-themed program to a flamenco version of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” — she as the matador and he as the bull — the duo earned a season’s best score of 134.67 to take the lead.

They then had to sit and wait, in seats reserved for the leaders, while Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron took the ice. Chock and Bates held hands as they watched anxiously. When the final scores were announced, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron shouted with enthusiasm. Chock and Bates did their best to smile.

For much of the rest of the night — on the podium, during photos and when speaking to reporters — both men did their best to hold back tears and often had stoic expressions on their tear-stained faces. Bates admitted 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 that they were unsure about their future in the sport.

After sitting silently and poker-faced, between Bates and Cizeron, for most of the press conference featuring all the medalists, Chock couldn’t help but show a glimpse of some of her signature fights, the one that made her and Bates such a success over all these years.

If this is in fact the end of their story as competitive ice dancers, Chock has made it clear that they did everything they could for a fairytale ending and there simply couldn’t have been anything else.

And that ending, while not as satisfying or as perfect, might just be enough.

“I think we’ve put our best skates out there every time we’ve been to the Olympics,” Chock said. “We are very proud of our four performances here at the Olympics. They were perfect for us. We couldn’t have skated better and we are very proud of the way we took to the ice, the way we performed each time and the rest is out of our control.”