Europe 1 with AFP
modified to
6:43 a.m., February 14, 2022
Skaters Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won the gold medal on Monday at the Beijing Olympics in ice dancing. They are the first French crowned in figure skating since 2002 and bring France its eleventh medal, the third in gold, since the start of the Games.
Skating under the spotlight on Monday in Beijing: dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won the Olympic title, the only one missing from their list, while Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva, at the heart of a resounding doping affair, will know if she can continue her adventure at the 2022 Olympics.
In four minutes and thirty seconds, on a work by Gabriel Fauré, L’Elégie, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron flew over the free dance and took their revenge on the fate that had deprived them of gold in 2018. Four years after the misadventure of the dress which had made its own in full rhythmic dance, Papadakis, 26, and Cizeron, 27, largely imposed themselves, with a total of 226.98 points, world record at the key, in front of the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (2nd, 220.51 pts) and Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (3rd, 218.02 pts).
First French crowned in figure skating since 2002
Largely in the lead after the rhythmic dance, they are the first French crowned in figure skating since 2002 and the duo Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat, already in ice dancing. They brought France its eleventh medal, the third in gold, after the two won by the strong man of these Games on the French side Quentin Fillon Maillet in biathlon.
Since Pyeongchang, the French duo have experienced only one defeat (European Championships 2020), but have also experienced a delicate period by remaining twenty months, until last October, without skating in competition, mainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic.