Papadakis, Cizeron claim Olympic ice dance gold in Beijing

BEIJING — Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron missed out on ice dancing gold by the slimmest of margins four years ago in Pyeongchang.

The French duo didn’t even make it close in Beijing.

The last on the ice for the free dance, Papadakis and Cizeron scored 136.15 points for their performance to “Elegie” by the early 20th century French composer Gabriel Faure. That gave them 226.98 points, beating their previous world record of 226.61 set in 2019, and easily enough to hold off Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov for gold.

“I think we don’t believe it yet. Honestly it feels completely unreal,” Papadakis said. “We have been waiting for this. This is the medal that we wanted. My brain doesn’t understand it.”

The Russian world champions took silver with 220.51 points while longtime American duo Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who already have announced plans to retire, claimed bronze in their final Winter Games.

Another set of Americans, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, finished just off the podium in fourth place.

“I have always been told since I was a little girl that my journey through skating should always been about the days and the moments, not just the accolades,” said Hubbell, who along with Donohue finished fourth in Pyeongchang. “I think this medal only came because we really took that to heart in the last four years.”

One of the earliest pairings was Gleb Smolkin and Diana Davis, the daughter of embattled Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze, whose star pupil Kamila Valieva was awaiting a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on a positive drug test that came to light last week. The 15-year-old Valieva was cleared to compete Tuesday night shortly after the dance competition ended.

Tutberidze watched from an inconspicuous corner of Capital Indoor Stadium during her daughter’s performance.

“Diana feels more calm when Enteri supports her because, first of all, she’s her mom,” Smolkin said. “I think for everyone, it’s a great feeling when your family is right here, right behind you.”