Right from when Evan Bates and Madison Chock met as teenagers in Michigan’s figure skating circles, winning the gold at the ultimate stage has been the goal. Then there was the fuel of narrowly missing out on the podium back in 2022. Unfortunately, it was not to be for Chock and Bates.

The couple lost out on the gold medal to France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron at the Milan Olympics after 15 years of hard work. They entered the ice dance free skate almost tied with the first-place finishers. When the event concluded, they finished 1.43 points behind first place.

Skating last to their Lenny Kravitz medley, Chock and Bates delivered with speed, clarity, and confidence, earning a score of 89.72 — less than half a point off the lead. This performance was enough to vouch for why they entered Milan as gold-medal favorites, combining strong technical execution with the polished performance quality that has defined their three-year run at the top of their sport.

The Americans had 224.39 after their mesmerizing, nearly flawless performance of Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones. The French topped it with 225.82 on their interpretation of soundtrack pieces from the movie The Whale. That narrow difference between Chock-Bates and Fournier Beaudry-Cizeron in the rhythm dance segment came when a technical panel review lowered the level of one of the U.S. team’s elements, the pattern dance.

“Let’s be honest, they should’ve won gold. They were robbed,” declared a fan.

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It was a surprising end to the event for the fans, as many think that Chock and Bates deserved the victory.

Outrage breaks out after a French judge’s 8-point margin to gold medal winners

Leading up to the final skate, their small downgrade in the short had already surprised the broadcasters.

“I am surprised,” Olympian and host Scott Hamilton said. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

And the fans feel the same.

Bates himself said, “It was our gold medal performance, it was the best we could skate.”

One French judge gave the winners almost eight points more than the American pair.

In the points tally released, 5 out of the 9 judges had Chock and Bates as the gold medalists. That is the majority. However, the point difference proved to be the killing blow for the American dream. The French judge awarded the winners a total of 137.45 while giving Madison Chock and Evan Bates a measly 129.74. Even the Spanish judge put Chock and Bates in third, giving them a total of 132.75.

Even Amber Glenn wrote after the results, “My Olympic Champions, Gracious People, Incredible Athletes, Amazing Entertainers.”

The couple themselves accepted the result with grace.

“Life is… Sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way,” Bates said. “And that’s life, and that’s sport, and it’s a subjective sport, it’s a judge sport. One fact, we did our best, we skated our best. We felt like we were very close.”

“Can we have an investigation into this Spanish judge? Not only third for the team who should’ve won, but 12th for the other??? This is 100% collusion,” observed another fan.

Further down the standings, the second-best American pair of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, skating to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Op. 64, had a combined score of 206.72 and finished a surprising fifth. 8 out of the 9 judges put them 8th at the least, but the Spanish judge had them 12th. If that vote had gone a little better, maybe they could have even sneaked to No. 4. But the bigger controversy was, of course, the top spot.

“Hadn’t scored over 134 all season but he f***** up the twizzle, and they still scored higher than that 😂😂😂,” noticed a fan. Well, past records can be broken, and 225.82 is their personal best. The pair did slightly trip on their twizzle, which should have caused some effect on their points. At least that is according to the fans. There is no proof that judges actually sabotaged Madison Chock and Evan Bates. And score trimming mechanics exist to avoid such situations.

The highest and lowest ratings of each judge are discarded while averaging out the final score. This means that even if one judge awards significantly higher or lower points than others, their score does not directly impact the final result. However, large spreads can still occur legitimately if several judges score one team consistently higher than another, which is why majority placement does not always guarantee a higher final score. That occurs for each individual element. Since the battle was extremely close here, the cumulative scores fell towards the French.

“Feels like there needs to be a more objective way to score this sport. One team got placed first by a majority of judges, but the French judge gave the French team an 8-point lead, double the biggest lead for either team from any other judge? Seems crazy anticompetitive,” wrote a fan.

Echoing similar sentiments, another fan wrote, “I’m far from an ice dancing expert. But, Chock and Bates performed a better and more aesthetically appealing routine. They should have won, Gold.”

Ice dancing is judged using the International Judging System (IJS), which scores performances in two main components: the Technical Element Score (TES) and the Program Component Score (PCS). TES evaluates elements like lifts and twizzles based on difficulty and execution, while PCS looks at the skating skills, composition, and presentation.

The final score with the score trimming combines technical and artistic points, with deductions applied for errors like falls or time violations. It boils down to the perspective of each judge. Sadly, the fact remains that Madison Chock and Evan Bates will return with a silver medal.