2026 Olys Free Dance PBP - Whale, Are We Ready For Some Bull Sheet Scores?

[BittyBug]

Polina Edmunds actually has terrific skating skills, which is not surprising considering she took lessons from Marina Klimova. But ice dancing is more than just skating skills, so her opinion is just that - her opinion.

 

[VGThuy]

Polina’s buddy Anthony Ponomarenko and his partner Christina Carreira and Emilea Zingas called Chock/Bates their champions. Of course, they’re all Americans.

Team USA on Instagram: "This is what world-class looks like. 👏 @madisonchock and @evan_bates deliver silver in ice dance for @usfigureskating. #WinterOlympics"

11K likes, 233 comments - teamusa on February 11, 2026: "This is what world-class looks like. 👏 @madisonchock and @evan_bates deliver silver in ice dance for @usfigureskating. #WinterOlympics".

www.instagram.com

 

[Karen-W]

I'm so glad that I've had the last couple hours with work to do and enough time to simmer down from the result. I turned the feed off before the medal ceremony.

It'll be interesting to see who is willing to book FBCiz for shows & tours - can't imagine that SOI is going to open a slot for them anywhere - ChoBat & GilPoir are already booked for Japan. Not sure how many of the Art on Ice shows ChoBat are doing. What else is there?

Hard to say whether or not the ZingKol & CarPon can retain 3 spots if ChoBat skip Worlds. I'd guess that #2-4 skip if FBCiz decide to go and at least give themselves the legitimacy of winning one World title before bouncing out from the competitive scene again for another 3 years. I suppose if FBCiz skip Worlds then ChoBat may go to Prague, but I honestly don't expect it. Best guess - 2 of the top 4 skip Worlds and FearGib don't mess up, then ZingKol would finish 4th and CarPon would move up 2 spots from here to 9th - that would be the magic 13 for 3 spots. But that's presuming that ZingKol don't suddenly drop behind the 2 IAM teams who are closest to them (ReedAmbru & LopBri).

 

[PRlady]

That was a lovely tone poem. Everything else aside, Cizeron probably is the best ice dance male that’s ever skated.

How you can say that with Sir Christopher in the house I do not understand.

If you look just at the skating and discard the personal stuff, F-B/C are very obviously the superior team. The FD is mesmerizing.

But how does one discard the personal stuff?

I was so hoping Karma would be a bitch but in the arena the truth seemed undeniable, at least to me. Laurence and Guillame skated better, period, and while I thought character drama would beat angsty tone poem, that damn whale FD is indeed mesmerizing.

Casual fan observance from my DH - Loved G/P and C/B. Hated LFB/C.

We will see who wins but my opinion is the Whale needs to be clean to sing.

I barely noticed the twizzles mistake. Now I’m not the most technical observer and we were sitting up so high close to god I could have asked Him for his opinion, but in the grand scheme of things the twizzle was not a big deal.

My DH strongly preferred the French, and really liked Dune, Z/K and (blech) R/A as well, good casual fan that he is.

I must agree with everyone who said that’s the best G/P have ever skated and they easily deserved the bronze. Poor Lilah.

 

[zigzig]

Just blah - C/B should have won. Meh.

 

[taf2002]

Ellaj Balde is thrilled for Piper and Paul. He was apparently in tears after their performance.

I was too. My podium had C/B, Piper & Paul, & then the French. The main reason I put the French 3rd is because I don't like when gold is so flagrantly predetermined. After the rhythm dance I think once-every-four-years fans could see the writing on the wall. What was so obvious were the technical scores. I wouldn't mind if they won (well I would mind a little) if C/B won the tech & the French had enough edge in program component to win the gold.

 

[allezfred]

How you can say that with Sir Christopher in the house I do not understand.

Think even Dean has said that himself. I know Torvill was a big fan of Papadakis/Cizeron.

Whatever you think of him personally, winning two Olympic titles with two different partners just four years apart is unprecedented in ice dance.

 

[skatfan]

It’s taken me a while to get my thoughts together about the competition. First of all, I’m thrilled for Zingas and Kolesnik skating both segments so well and finishing fifth. Glad the Italians made it to the top four. Gilles and Poirier had the emotional skate of the evening.

I have such mixed feelings about the French winning. When I first saw their program last fall, I figured they were gonna win at that time. My feelings about each of them as people are still negative. It bothers me that they won. Their skate was not clean and from the TV side, I thought it might be really close, but it wasn’t.

So sad for Maddie and Evan. They put their hearts into everything and it just didn’t happen. If preparation were given a gold medal they would’ve won.

 

[fsfann]

It was certainly a "frosty" reception towards FB/C from both Piper & Paul and Madison & Evan. I don't think either couple really even looked at them - even when they stood on the top step of the podium for photos. Definitely awkward.

 

[Baby Yoda On Skates]

I'm still watching the FD, but it's not like Cizeron just plucked some girl out of juniors and made her an ice dancer. LFB was only held back by the millstone around her neck. I'm not surprised by this result.

But I'll laugh if we get another petition like 2002 Worlds.

 

[VGThuy]

It was certainly a "frosty" reception towards FB/C from both Piper & Paul and Madison & Evan. I don't think either couple really even looked at them - even when they stood on the top step of the podium for photos. Definitely awkward.

Reminds me of this picture:

Erik Anderson on Instagram: "2017 Oscar-winning actors Mahershala Ali, Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Casey Affleck. #oscars #oscars2017 #mahershalaali #emmastone #violadavis #caseyaffleck #academyawards #bestactor #bestactress #bestsupportingactor #bes

49 likes, 3 comments - awardswatch on February 27, 2017: "2017 Oscar-winning actors Mahershala Ali, Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Casey Affleck. #oscars #oscars2017 #mahershalaali #emmastone #violadavis #caseyaffleck #academyawards #bestactor #bestactress #bestsupportingactor #bestsupportingactress".

www.instagram.com

 

[skategal]

I do get both sides of the argument. At the end of the day it is emotionally unsatisfying to have the winner not skate all out and clean. Like g/p

I can’t get angry for c/b whom I am sure got their fair share of luck gone their side in the last few years

This is me too.

I don’t forget all the close calls that went C/B’s way when they had mistakes in their programs or a messy skate.

 

[Sylvia]

Interesting that Chock and Bates won five judges on the panel to FB&C's four:

Skating Scores: Latest Figure Skating Results, Scores, Rankings & Statistics

The best resource for Figure Skating scores and stats on the web.

skatingscores.com

C&B: GEO, FIN, USA, ITA, CHN
F-B&C: FRA, ESP, CAN, CZE

The judges who put F-B&C ahead put them ahead by a much wider margin. The French judge had FB&C eight points ahead of C&B.

Kudos to the Finnish judge who gave F-B&C's twizzles 0 GOE, which I'm quite confident a lesser team would've received.

In case the final standings, FD scores & protocols link have not been posted...

FD protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/sea...------FNL-000100--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

1 FOURNIER BEAUDRY Laurence / CIZERON Guillaume FRA 135.64 77.06 58.58 9.79 9.82 9.68 0.00 #20
2 CHOCK Madison / BATES Evan USA 134.67 76.75 57.92 9.64 9.82 9.50 0.00 #19
3 GILLES Piper / POIRIER Paul CAN 131.56 75.00 56.56 9.46 9.46 9.36 0.00 #18
4 GUIGNARD Charlene / FABBRI Marco ITA 125.30 69.96 55.34 9.21 9.32 9.14 0.00 #16
5 ZINGAS Emilea / KOLESNIK Vadym USA 123.19 69.25 53.94 9.00 9.11 8.86 0.00 #15
6 SMART Olivia / DIECK Tim ESP 122.96 69.18 53.78 9.07 9.11 8.71 0.00 #11
7 REED Allison / AMBRULEVICIUS Saulius LTU 121.71 68.93 52.78 8.79 8.89 8.71 0.00 #14
8 LOPAREVA Evgeniia / BRISSAUD Geoffrey FRA 121.43 68.41 53.02 8.79 8.79 8.93 0.00 #13
9 LAJOIE Marjorie / LAGHA Zachary CAN 120.14 67.50 52.64 8.86 8.75 8.71 0.00 #12
10 CARREIRA Christina / PONOMARENKO Anthony USA 119.47 67.33 52.14 8.68 8.75 8.64 0.00 #10
11 DAVIS Diana / SMOLKIN Gleb GEO 118.87 66.93 51.94 8.68 8.68 8.61 0.00 #8
12 FEAR Lilah / GIBSON Lewis GBR 118.85 65.15 53.70 9.07 9.07 8.71 0.00 #17
13 TURKKILA Juulia / VERSLUIS Matthias FIN 118.07 66.57 52.50 8.86 8.75 8.64 1.00 #9
14 LAURIAULT Marie-Jade / le GAC Romain CAN 112.83 63.89 48.94 8.25 8.29 7.93 0.00 #6
15 TASCHLEROVA Natalie / TASCHLER Filip CZE 109.67 60.39 49.28 8.18 8.25 8.21 0.00 #7
16 MRAZKOVA Katerina / MRAZEK Daniel CZE 109.35 60.99 48.36 8.00 8.07 8.11 0.00 #4
17 HARRIS Holly / CHAN Jason AUS 108.64 62.14 46.50 7.82 7.79 7.64 0.00 #3
18 BEKKER Phebe / HERNANDEZ James GBR 106.99 59.99 47.00 7.96 7.86 7.68 0.00 #5
19 VAL Sofia / KAZIMOV Asaf ESP 100.25 56.83 43.42 7.32 7.25 7.14 0.00 #1

Ice Dance
Result
FPl. Name Nation Points RD FD
GOLD FOURNIER BEAUDRY Laurence / CIZERON Guillaume FRA 225.82 1 1
SILVER CHOCK Madison / BATES Evan USA 224.39 2 2
BRONZE GILLES Piper / POIRIER Paul CAN 217.74 3 3
4 GUIGNARD Charlene / FABBRI Marco ITA 209.58 5 4
5 ZINGAS Emilea / KOLESNIK Vadym USA 206.72 6 5
6 REED Allison / AMBRULEVICIUS Saulius LTU 204.66 7 7
7 FEAR Lilah / GIBSON Lewis GBR 204.32 4 12
8 LOPAREVA Evgeniia / BRISSAUD Geoffrey FRA 203.68 8 8
9 SMART Olivia / DIECK Tim ESP 201.49 10 6
10 LAJOIE Marjorie / LAGHA Zachary CAN 199.80 9 9
11 CARREIRA Christina / PONOMARENKO Anthony USA 197.62 11 10
12 TURKKILA Juulia / VERSLUIS Matthias FIN 196.03 12 13
13 DAVIS Diana / SMOLKIN Gleb GEO 196.02 13 11
14 LAURIAULT Marie-Jade / le GAC Romain CAN 187.18 15 14
15 TASCHLEROVA Natalie / TASCHLER Filip CZE 185.00 14 15
16 MRAZKOVA Katerina / MRAZEK Daniel CZE 181.44 17 16
17 BEKKER Phebe / HERNANDEZ James GBR 179.45 16 18
18 HARRIS Holly / CHAN Jason AUS 176.39 18 17
19 VAL Sofia / KAZIMOV Asaf ESP 165.23 20 19
20 REITAN Milla Ruud / MAJOROV Nikolaj SWE 165.05 19 20

Final Not Reached
21 WANG Shiyue / LIU Xinyu CHN 64.76 21
22 LIM Hannah / QUAN Ye KOR 64.69 22
23 JANSE van RENSBURG Jennifer / STEFFAN Benjamin GER 63.67 23

 

[Private Citizen]

Their skate was not clean and from the TV side, I thought it might be really close, but it wasn’t.

It was closer than the results made it look.

As I posted, Chock and Bates won five judges to four. Four judges -- including France and Canada -- put FB&C ahead by a much bigger margin, and that gave them the win.

Swap out one of the RD judges for a US judge, and C&B likely would have won that segment and gone into the FD as leaders.

Swap out one of the free dance judges for our friend the British judge or the German judge (who also put FB&C third in the RD) in the free dance, and C&B likely would have won that segment.

The panels were very unfavorable for C&B, and about as favorable as possible for FB&C. They appeared to have both France and Canada working for them in both programs. Meanwhile, the judges who placed them lowest in the RD were not drawn for the FD, while those who placed them highest were. And those pro-FB&C judges created huge gaps with C&B.

It all came down to the judging draws, IMO. Having a US judge in the RD and losing either France or Canada in the free dance probably would've been enough for C&B.

 

[ryanj07]

I just rewatched the entire final flight. The way people are talking about FB/C, you'd think they fell all over the ice. That dance was absolutely mesmerizing from start to finish. Yes, Guillaume had a minor bobble exiting the twizzles but it didn't disrupt the program and the judges took an appropriate deduction in the GOE and level. Without that slight error, they'd have hit 137. IMO, Bock were never going to beat this program skated even close to its potential. That was evident back in the fall.

 

[tony]

Walking the streets in a random stop far from where we are staying and we just ran right into Piper and Paul!!! It’s 2AM

 

[skategal]

I need to go back and rewatch the final two flights now that I’m not holding my breath.

 

[once_upon]

Oh man, it would have been fun to see Plushenko sit there watching Yagudin win in 2002.

It was a riot to watch them in the fan fest award ceremony

 

[jlai]

Having watched it G/p moved me the most with that sense of flight and freedom.
Didn't care for the French but it is a matter of program taste.
I do agree that C/b was good but the staccato program didn't have a sense of flow and flight needed for a winner.
And I think the judging preferences are swinging back in favor or Europeans so hoping for the best for z/k at worlds

 

[Coco]

Would love to see the sperminator jump map if it could show the entire path traced by the teams, and also the distance covered by specific elements where distance is relevant, etc.

Literally in no teknik about ice dance, but I think it might help explain results. Or not

 

[Bunny Hop]

I am going to re-watch the final 3 tonight on our big screen TV because I was using a small iPad screen this morning, but I have to say I barely noticed the issue with Cizeron's twizzle and it was only because the commentary called it out that I realised it was actually something. It didn't seem disruptive at all and as flagged here already it did correctly drop a level. Not the huge error some have seen. Seemed like it could go either way to me. I wasn't invested in who was going to win.

 

[allezfred]

I rewatched too and, it’s me saying this so feel free to dismiss, I didn’t think the twizzle was really disruptive at all and it was well disguised. The only thing I saw was a bit of a wobble on the rotational lift, but again well covered.

 

[once_upon]

The look of smugness and we are far superior than anyone in our group with rhythm dance spoke volumes to me.

At least be pleasantly to those who you know you are better than.

I hope that IAM becomes irrelevant by 2028.

 

[MacMadame]

They have dogs in prams.

Those dogs need some pets! I'm sure they'd appreciate a baby or two!

I think ice dance scoring is full of false precision and it's not really possible to do more than segment teams in most cases, but I'd trust Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri over Polina Edmunds, personally.

All the disciplines are. Or rather, "precision is not accuracy." For example, if one team scores .04 more than another, the reality is that both teams skated about as well as each other. This isn't swimming, where we have precise measurements to 3 decimal points and they are real. We have averages and a decision to display 2 digits instead of 1 or 5.

And I also would trust an ice dancer's take over a single skater who hasn't skated in years. And G/F don't skate at IAM so probably don't have friendship clouding their judgements.

That said, I am sure we can find another ice dancing team that thinks FBCiz won fair and square.

That dance was absolutely mesmerizing from start to finish.

In your opinion. Whether or not something is mesmerizing is an opinion and, in spite of the fact that FSU told me their dance is about the shapes of water so I have tried very hard to really watch the whole thing, I still lose attention about halfway through and have to drag my attention back. It's just not my thing.

Walking the streets in a random stop far from where we are staying and we just ran right into Piper and Paul!!! It’s 2AM

Were they wearing their medals? I hope they were!


Btw, people are acting like FBCiz got together just to win this medal and then bounce. I am not so sure. According to both Guilliame and Gabby, he wanted to come back and keep competing and she didn't. He was clear that he was not done. Is one season and skating with someone for just 1 year going to be enough for him? I would not bet on it either way.

 

[Karen-W]

And I think the judging preferences are swinging back in favor or Europeans so hoping for the best for z/k at worlds

I'm sorry, but... what?

2022 had two European teams on the Olympic podium. The pendulum had already started swinging that way with the inexplicable rise of SinKats as the only team that was able to beat PapCiz in the 2019-22 cycle. Canada has already fallen off this cycle and chances are the US will follow suit in the upcoming cycle if the politics really have shifted that far.

We won't know for sure until next season, of course, but I think it's a safe bet there won't be more than 3 North American teams in the Top 10 at Worlds 2026.

 

[VGThuy]

I hope he keeps on switching female partners and winning. It’ll really represent ice dance culture.

 

[skategal]

I am going to re-watch the final 3 tonight on our big screen TV because I was using a small iPad screen this morning, but I have to say I barely noticed the issue with Cizeron's twizzle and it was only because the commentary called it out that I realised it was actually something. It didn't seem disruptive at all and as flagged here already it did correctly drop a level. Not the huge error some have seen. Seemed like it could go either way to me. I wasn't invested in who was going to win.

DH and I watched it on a big screen and DH who has no clue about ice dance looked at me and said “that looked like a mistake. Was it?”

I’m sure it was way more noticeable on TV than live in the arena.

We think he spotted a mistake with C/B too. She hit his head a bit when going into a lift. I didn’t even see that.

He has good eyes.

 

[Debrah]

This thread title is EVERYTHING; and also PROPHETIC, LOL!!!

 

[mtnskater]

Jackie Wong’s FD recap is quite interesting.

 

[Barbara Manatee]

And G/F don't skate at IAM so probably don't have friendship clouding their judgements.

I suspect that all of the top ice dance teams have strong opinions about FB/C, their previous partner dramas, and their abrupt jump into competition which dropped everyone down a spot in the rankings.

Regardless, the top two were so close I'm not sure there is a "right" answer as to who should have won.