Milan (Italy) (AFP) – Four years after his Winter Games victory alongside Gabriella Papadakis, French skater Guillaume Cizeron achieved the unprecedented feat of a second Olympic ice dancing gold medal with a new partner on Wednesday. Cizeron, 31, and 33-year-old Laurence Fournier Beaudry snatched gold ahead of reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States. Their mesmerising free dance to the soundtrack of the 2022 film “The Whale” capped a turbulent 12 months for the pair.
But the success against the odds for the skater from Clermont-Ferrand in central France and his new Canadian partner, who became a French citizen last November, comes as no surprise to those closest to him. “One day, he told us: ‘The day I stop skating, given how well I’ve excelled in this sport, the day I take on something else, it’s going to be very hard not to be at the top,'” his mother Jocelyne Cizeron told AFP. “When he starts something, when he gets involved in a dance class, in painting, in costume design, because he loves everything related to the arts, he gives it his all. He doesn’t do things half measure. He strives for excellence. It’s truly a defining characteristic of his personality.”
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In Milan, Cizeron confirmed that he was aiming for nothing less than “perfection” on the eve of his third Olympics. He also won silver in 2018 with Papadakis. “That’s our goal, and that’s really what we’re focused on,” he explained. Even Monday’s remarkable rhythm dance to Madonna’s hit “Vogue,” which hit a season-high score of 90.18 points, fell short for Cizeron. Visibly anxious as he left the ice, Cizeron commented: “it wasn’t 100 percent perfect.” “We know very well what is perfect and what isn’t as we skate. It’s a bit of a trap to fall into that and forget to enjoy the moment,” he told journalists.
Cizeron and Papadakis last competed together after claiming a fifth world title in 2022. That partnership, which had spanned two decades, ended painfully, with Papadakis accusing him in a book of having exerted a form of “control” over her during their career. The official end of that partnership in late 2024 left him in limbo. But ultimately, Cizeron’s competitive drive and desire to perform proved stronger, and he teamed up with close friend Fournier Beaudry in early 2025. “You could almost sense he was a little unhappy about having to stop,” recalled Jocelyne Cizeron. “This opportunity to dance with Laurence was truly a lifesaver for him.”
– ‘Raise the bar’ – During the period without a dance partner, Cizeron, who studied at art school and is rarely without his sketchbook, never stopped pursuing his artistic interests. He continued taking dance classes, seeking out choreographers, people who could help him create, reinvent and express himself as best he could. A perfect illustration of his desire to push artistic boundaries was the choice of voguing, an urban dance born in the LGBT+ communities of New York, for the rhythmic dance. “Voguing has never been done on ice. There’s also a desire for him to raise the bar each time,” his mother said.
The partnership was also timely for Fournier Beaudry, who was unable to compete after the suspension of her former partner, Nikolaj Sorensen, who was implicated in a 2012 sexual abuse case in Canada. He has denied the accusations and was in the crowd in Milan. The duo had competed for Denmark, Sorensen’s country of birth, before switching to Canada when Fournier Beaudry was unable to obtain Danish citizenship ahead of the 2018 Olympics. She had the daunting task of succeeding Papadakis, whose personality and grace on the ice captivated audiences for many years. “Laurence is not a pale imitation of Gabriella,” insisted their coach Romain Haguenauer. And Cizeron said he knew he could count on the strength of his new partner. “We have been through some incredibly hard moments, but the love we have for each other, and the sport, really brought us through,” he said.
© 2024 AFP
