Madison Chock, Evan Bates 'wouldn't change anything' after ice dance silver

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates 'wouldn't change anything' after ice dance silver

They had occupied the ice dance penthouse for so much of the past four seasons, including the last three World Championships, that Madison Chock and Evan Bates might as well have been declared owners of the place.

Yet when they were ready to throw a housewarming celebration in front of the world, Chock and Bates were evicted by a couple of new kids on the block, French team Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, whom they know as friends and train with at the same rink in Montreal.

So, the apparent end of the U.S. ice dancers’ stellar career did not include the individual Olympic gold medal that had been their goal since deciding they would try for a fourth Winter Games as competitive partners and a first as husband and wife.

Chock and Bates claimed silver after Wednesday’s free dance, adding an individual medal to the golds they won in the team event at both this Olympics and the last. They were a frustrated fourth in the 2022 ice dance event.

“It’s definitely a little bittersweet, because we are so, so happy with how we performed this week,” Chock said, her voice cracking as she continued the thought.

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Team USA's path to Olympic figure skating team gold was full of surprises

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Team USA's path to Olympic figure skating team gold was full of surprises

This time, the Olympic figure skating team event is over when it was over.

Team USA claimed a second straight gold, and the medals were hung around the necks of the seven U.S. skaters who took part in the team event barely 30 minutes after the competition ended at the Milan Ice Skating Arena.

And it wasn’t over until it was over, coming down to a thrilling head-to-head contest between the final two men’s singles skaters — Ilia Malinin of the U.S. and Shun Sato of Japan.

“I was more nervous watching Ilia than I was skating myself,” said U.S. captain and pairs skater Danny O'Shea.

Malinin had lost the short program decisively to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who was replaced for the free skate by Sato, recently stronger in the longer phase of events than Kagiyama. That left some doubt about how the Quadg0d would handle the free.

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Quad God Ilia Malinin just might be human after all

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Quad God Ilia Malinin just might be human after all

Yes, there has been a lot of attention on figure skater Ilia Malinin, to the point where someone just dropping in on the sport would have been utterly shocked to see what happened when Malinin made his Olympic debut in the short program of the team event.

Isn’t this guy supposed to be the quadg0d? An overwhelming favorite for the men’s singles gold medal? Winner of the last two world titles?

Then how did he finish second Saturday at the Milano Ice Center Arena to Yuma Kagiyama of Japan…and by 10 points??

On ice, of course, even the divine can slip into fallibility, as Malinin did, losing points on an under-rotated quad Lutz jump and a spin that did not get the maximum base value.

And this wasn’t the first time Kagiyama had beaten Malinin in a short program. In fact, it happened in their last meeting, at the Grand Prix Final in December.

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Ilia Malinin tops himself - and skating's record books - once again

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Ilia Malinin tops himself - and skating's record books - once again

I was tempted to take the last column I wrote about Ilia Malinin, change a few numbers and use that to describe what Malinin did Saturday in the men’s free skate at the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan.

This is how that Nov. 2 story began:

“There comes a point in the careers of some extraordinary athletes when they are competing against only themselves and the record books.”

And Malinin beat the record books again, even after making the men’s competition more interesting when a sloppy short program left him 16 points behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama.

Malinin overcame that with a quadruple jump array that never before had been used successfully in a skating event. And that is worth a fresh look.

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Despite twists and turns, U.S. ice dancers Zingas and Kolesnik stay in fast lane

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Despite twists and turns, U.S. ice dancers Zingas and Kolesnik stay in fast lane

There are a lot of unexpected plot twists in the story of how Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik got here.

Not the least of those surprises simply is what “here” means to them this week.

The U.S. ice dancers are in Helsinki, Finland, where they will compete beginning Friday in the Finlandia Trophy event on the Grand Prix circuit, with a chance to make the Grand Prix Final and/or simply build their case for getting one the three U.S. ice dance spots at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Who would have imagined a convert from singles skating in 2022 and an ice dancer from a war-ravaged city in Ukraine could be a team in this position so quickly?

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