French news media spoke of a "magnetic performance" by ice dancing pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron in this week's Olympic free dance competition that saw them win the gold medal over Team USA skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
"Throughout their free program, Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry seemed to fly on the ice, unrolling their choreography in near-perfect synchronization," a reporter at France TV Rome, part of the channel that holds the Olympics broadcasting rights in France, said in a segment celebrating the French duo's victory.
In the same clip, the pair's coach can be heard telling Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron that he believed they made a mistake during the program and was apparently "preparing them for failure," according to the France TV reporter.
The atmosphere appears somber as the camera lingers on the skaters and their coach waiting for the judges' scores. Then, the mood completely changes: the scores put the two ahead of Chock and Bates.
Coach Romain Haguenauer screams in shock before hugging Cizeron. Fournier Beaudry appears close to tears as she receives the news.
The French reporting did not mention Chock and Bates, who were considered the favorites in the competition as the three-time world ice dancing champions.
Shortly after the scores were announced, Chock and Bates were seen in tears, after making what they believed had been a gold-winning performance.
After a stellar career, Chock and Bates, who married in 2024 but have been skating together since 2011, were hoping to bring home their first Olympic gold medal in Milan-Cortina this week.
The judges assigned the U.S. skaters a total of 224.39 points and Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron a total of 225.82 points, handing the French skaters gold.
Chock and Bates both talked about feeling proud of their performance in the decisive free dance, although they admitted to being disappointed with the result.
"It's definitely a little bittersweet because we are so, so happy with how we performed this week," Chock told reporters after the competition. "We really gave it our all, and I wouldn't change anything about how we approached each performance, what we delivered in each performance. We really gave it our best."
There has been much scrutiny in the aftermath of the competition on the French judge who gave Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron eight points more than he gave the Americans -- the largest gap of any judge in the panel.
This led to an outburst of anger on social media by disgruntled Team USA fans saying that Chock and Bates were robbed of victory, including a petition on Change.org which now has over 14,000 signatures calling for an investigation.
The American pair, however, have not claimed any misconduct on the part of the judges. In a social media post Chock thanked fans for their support and said it was "truly an honor to skate on Olympic ice and we're so proud of how hard we worked to get here and deliver our very best."
Reporter Lukas Weese of The Athletic, however, wrote in a piece published after the competition that he believed Chock and Bates should have won gold.
"I felt that the emotion and performance quality of Chock/Bates was higher, aided with a better song choice," he wrote. "The crowd agreed. The judges didn't see it that way and that's why France is the Olympic champion by the slimmest of margins."
Before the free dance, described as the French pair's forte, commentators on France 24 had said they expected a close finish with the Team USA pair.
French news website RMC Sport said that the French pair's victory "by a hair's breadth" was being much discussed because of the judges' scores.
The website explained that the nine judges for the ice dancing competition are chosen at random by a computer and the margin for error in determining a winner or podium finish "can be minuscule, as was the case this Wednesday evening."
RMC Sport also defended the under-fire French judge.
"It should be noted, however, that the French judge wasn't the only one to have Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry in the lead with a margin of more than one point," the news website wrote. "While only four judges awarded their highest score to the French (compared to five for the Americans), the Spanish judge and her Czech counterpart also gave the eventual gold medalists five and three points more than Chock and Evans respectively."
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron arrived at the Milan-Cortina Olympics already enveloped in controversy.
The two came together after Fournier Beaudry, a Canadian who received French citizenship only three months ago, was forced to look for a new partner after her previous one, Nikolaj Sørensen, was banned from the sport for at least six years over allegations that he sexually assaulted an American figure skater in April 2012.
Both Fournier Beaudry, who has been dating Sørensen since 2013, and Cizeron have defended the embattled skater.
But Cizeron is also at the center of another scandal. The skater, who won the ice dance title at Beijing in 2022, has since been accused by his former longtime dance partner Gabriella Papadakis of abusive behavior. In a memoir released last month in France, she said Cizeron was "often controlling, demanding and critical," and spoke of being "terrified by the idea of finding myself alone with him."
Cizeron has rejected her claims and called her memoir a "smear campaign."