Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are Olympic medalists for the first time.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The crowd didn’t need to wait for the judge’s scores to know that Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier had finally won their Olympic medal.
As the five-time Canadian champions entered their final spin after a flawless performance of their emotional Starry, Starry Night program – also called Vincent,– many inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena were already on their feet.
The Canadians’ closest rivals, Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson had stumbled in their twizzles and all Gilles and Poirier had to do was skate clean. They did this and much more, laying down the skate of their lives on Olympic ice, posting a season’s best score of 217.74, eight points ahead of the fourth-place Italians, Marco Fabbri and Charlene Guignard.
The French team of Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry went on to win gold with 225.82, edging out the American favourites, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, by just over a point.
On Wednesday, when it was Gilles and Poirier’s turn to take the podium, the 34-year-old three-time Olympians held nothing back: They jumped into the bronze position and pumped their fists in the air.
“We just left everything out on that table,” Gilles said afterward. “To be able to finish like that, we were just so proud.”
Heading into these Olympic Games, Gilles and Poirier’s medal hopes seemed to be slipping away. The pair placed fourth at the Grand Prix final behind the British team. And then in their first event in Milan – the rhythm dance in the team competition – Fear and Gibson were again placed third ahead of Gilles and Poirier.
After the medal ceremony, Poirier acknowledged the difficult road during the season.
“We’re so proud of ourselves and what we’ve accomplished. The start of the season was really difficult,” Poirier said afterward. “I think a lot of moments throughout this season, it kind of felt like we were taking on a giant … I think especially after the Grand Prix final, we had to make a conscious decision each day to believe in ourselves and to believe that what we wanted was possible.”
Gilles and Poirier's emotion Starry, Starry night dance secured their spot on the podium.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The results of Wednesday’s free dance cap off a turbulent year for ice dance, which has been steeped in drama, scandal and suspense throughout the season — some of which was captured in a recently released Netflix documentary, Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing.
Going back a year ago, the outcome of the Milan Cortina Olympic Games seemed preordained. Gilles and Poirier were regularly placing second at international competitions behind Chock and Bates. With Milan around the corner, every indication was that Chock and Bates were a lock for gold, with a slim chance that underdogs Gilles and Poirier could pull off an upset.
This was the premise behind the Netflix documentary, which producers initially envisioned as a deep-dive into the rivalry between these two teams.
But then came the twist.
Last March – 11 months before the Olympic Games – Cizeron shocked the figure skating world by announcing he was coming out of retirement and forming a new partnership with former Canadian ice dance champion Fournier Beaudry.
Despite their lack of experience as a couple together, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry’s pedigree meant they would instantly be recognized as a podium threat and on the Grand Prix competitive series they proved it, eventually coming second behind the Americans at the final.
But the duo has been competing under a cloud of controversy.
The reason that Fournier Beaudry was available was because her boyfriend and ice dance partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, had been suspended over an allegation that he had sexually assaulted a former American skater in 2012. (The suspension has since been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.)
Then just before the Games, Cizeron’s former long-time dance partner, Gabriella Papadakis – whom he won the 2022 Olympics with – published a book that accused him of being controlling and demanding. Cizeron denied the allegations and accused Papadakis of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against him.
Gilles and Poirier celebrate their bronze medal as France's Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry and Americans Chock and Bates look on.Yara Nardi/Reuters
At a press conference after the medal ceremony, Cizeron was asked if the gold medal is more meaningful because of the backlash that they received.
“It’s been quite a challenge what we set out to do,” he said. “I think from the beginning we tried to create a bubble where we really supported each other through everything. And we’ve been through some incredibly hard moments, but I think the love that we have for each other and for the sport really brought us through.”
Speaking to reporters, Chock struggled to contain her tears.
“There’s nothing more we could have done and nothing that we would change,” Chock said.
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At the start of the season, Gilles and Poirier took a risk by using their Vincent program, which they debuted several years ago. Judges sometimes frown on recycled routines, but Poirier said it felt like they had unfinished business. In the Netflix documentary, Gilles revealed that it’s especially meaningful to her because they were choreographing Vincent when her mother was dying of cancer.
Her mother never got to see the finished product, but on Wednesday, Gilles – who herself is a cancer survivor – said she felt her mother’s presence in Milan.
“I love my mom and I know she was there with me. I felt it when the sun came up today.”
Canadians Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha and Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac also competed Wednesday, finishing 10th and 14th respectively.