Calls to challenge Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ Olympic results have been relentless after what many believe was an unfair scoring. 5 of 9 judges wanted the Americans in the gold-medal position, but a French judge awarded the French team the highest marks and placed the U.S. duo last, sparking accusations of bias. And now, U.S. Figure Skating has taken a call on what it plans to do next.

US Figure Skating did not appeal the controversial call regarding Madison Chock and Evan Bates at the Milan Olympics, as per an official’s statement to USA TODAY Sports.

“There has been a lot of thoughtful, and at times emotional, discussion about the ice dance competition in Milan,” USFS CEO Matt Farrell said in a statement.

“Working together with Madi and Evan after the Games, we will have thoughtful and intentional discussions about the best way to support them and the future of the sport.”

Well, seems like they know people are upset about the results, but still they’re focusing on celebrating the team instead of challenging the scores. But what exactly went wrong?

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Well, Team USA skated a clean, strong free dance to earn silver, but France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron took gold with 225.82 points, just a slim margin ahead. Soon after observers noted that Cizeron had small issues in his twizzles. Videos and fan analysis showed moments where his rotations were slightly uneven and his balance wavered at times.

While these weren’t major falls, they were enough for analysts to question how judges weighed them against the rest of the performance.

Despite these “notable errors with their twizzle sequences” in both the rhythm and free dance programs…one French judge, Jezabel Dabouis gave the French team much higher scores than other judges.

In the free dance, she awarded the French pair 137.45, while giving Madison Chock and Bates 129.74, a gap of more than seven points, which is far larger than any other judge’s spread.

While U.S. Figure Skating could have considered an appeal but the 24 hour window to challenge the results had already passed and the organization confirmed it would not appeal.

However, outside of a formal appeal they still can send a letter of concern to the International Skating Union remains an option. In any case, the medal meant a lot to Chock and Bates.

Madison Chock and Bates are heartbroken after narrowly missing Olympic gold

Before this event, Madison Chock and Evan Bates had already won two Olympic golds in the team figure skating event (2022 and 2026), but in the individual ice dance competition, they had never reached the podium. A gold medal here would have been a major personal milestone in their long careers but it narrowly slipped away.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” Madison Chock said, pausing several times to compose herself while speaking to reporters after winning silver.

Bates added, We really did our best, and I think that is something that we’ll try to remember and focus on most right now, is that we really did our best.” She also added about the scoring:

“I feel like life is sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way and that’s that’s life and that’s sport and it’s a subjective sport, it’s a judged sport, but I think one fact that is indisputable is that we delivered our best, we skated our best, we did our season’s best almost every single time,” he said. “And the rest is not up to us… We felt like we skated a winning performance but… and that’s what we came here to do.”

Well, this competition was especially meaningful for the couple. It was Madison Chock and Bates’ fifth Olympics together and their first Games as a married couple. This time, they had the chance to finally claim an individual Olympic medal after years of dedication and consistent top performances. Alas that was lost.