Madison Chock and Evan Bates are returning to the Olympic Games, this time in pole position. The American ice dance team recently won their 7th national title in a quad where they have been the ones to beat domestically and internationally. However, just three days before the competition begins, a frightening incident threatened to derail their Olympic plans.

Chock and Bates have arrived in Italy for what will be their fourth Olympic appearance and are now settling into official practices in Milan ahead of the team event beginning on Friday. But during a practice session, attention turned to the closing moments of their free dance, a part of the program that has worried fans all season.

But as figure skating analyst, Jackie Wong reassured fans from Milan, “For those wondering about Chock/Bates’ choreo slide at the end of their FD re: potential of skirt trippage, she wraps her skirt/cape around her during that lift slide so that there is no real issue of any toepick tripping.”

The concern comes from Chock’s long, billowing skirt getting tangled up in Bates’ skate during their choreo slide move to close out their flamenco free dance.

With Bates skating in a lunged position as Chock balances her body on his front skate boot, the skirt could easily snag and cause a fall if not properly secured, which luckily, doesn’t seem to be the case.

Still, the issue has had fans worried all season. In the Netflix docuseries Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing, director Katie Walsh, who filmed the team in the lead-up to the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, spoke openly about the tension caused by Chock’s striking but risky matador-style skirt.

“It really created a line of tension for them and us as viewers,” Walsh said. “Even I’m holding my breath and covering my eyes. I was watching them in early January after filming ended, and it seemed like they had it under control. But I mean, it’s a variable.”

Regardless of the concerns, the skirt plays an important part in their flamenco-style program, incorporated in their choreography in several sections.

Interestingly enough, the current iteration of Chock’s skirt is a shorter, less bulky, and therefore less risky version of what she began the season with. Still, the fears persist, and for good reason.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates and the weight of Olympic near-misses

Married in 2022, Madison Chock and Evan Bates have one of the longest-running partnerships in the sport. They have been skating together since 2011. But their Olympic history has never been smooth.

They failed to medal at all in the 2014 Sochi Games. And then at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, it all collapsed within a few seconds. Their blades crossed over each other in a spin, and the two fell during their free program.

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And as they fell, so did any chance of a medal, with the couple finishing ninth overall. Worse still was the fact that Chock was skating in pain due to an ankle injury that season. Afterward, she underwent surgery, but the healing process took months.

Beijing 2022 represented a turning point, though it also came with disappointment. Though they eventually won gold in the team event following the ROC’s demotion, they were unable to translate that result into an individual ice dance medal, finishing just shy in fourth place.

Already 29 and 32, many wondered if they would continue. But they did, and they rebuilt. Beijing was the catalyst of a massive win that Chock and Bates went on afterward.

They’ve won the World Championships and Grand Prix Finals three times in 2023, 2024, and 2025, along with US Nationals five times consecutively since 2022. Those wins were not just about scores. They were about proving that time, injuries, and past mistakes had not broken them.