French duo Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry lead American world champions by 0.46 points after the rhythm dance, setting up a tense free dance final for gold
FRENCH ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry surged to a surprise lead over world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates after the Olympic rhythm dance.
The scene is now set for a tense battle for gold with just 0.46 points separating the top two couples ahead of Wednesday’s free dance final.
Cizeron is bidding for a second consecutive Olympic gold, having won the title in Beijing four years ago with former partner Gabriella Papadakis.
The 31-year-old teamed up with 33-year-old Fournier Beaudry only last March.
“We are very ambitious. We came here to win gold. It’s a big ambition,” Fournier Beaudry warned.
The Americans, who are three-time defending world champions and won team gold on Sunday, performed last with an electrifying routine to a Lenny Kravitz track.
It earned them 89.72 points, below their season’s best of 91.06 set on Friday, after being downgraded in a step sequence.
“The game is always on, and you should know us by now: we’re not changing anything,” said Chock.
“We’ve got this locked in, we know ourselves, we know our routine, and we got this.”
The French pair chose Madonna’s hit “Vogue”, inspired by the urban dance style, which they admitted represented a “major technical challenge.”
After a final test during the team event, they improved their score by two-tenths of a point compared to Friday, achieving a personal best.
“I think we gave the best performance we could this evening,” said Cizeron. “It wasn’t 100 percent perfect.”
Cizeron wore a black jumpsuit, while Fournier Beaudry was in a pink corset reminiscent of Madonna’s iconic conical bra.
“I’d say that tonight, our goal was really to loosen up a bit,” said Fournier Beaudry.
“We managed to release some of the tension that was there at the beginning of the Olympic Games.”
The millennial generation had a blast at the Milan ice rink with 1990s music from Ricky Martin, George Michael, the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys.
Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are in third position on 86.18 points.
They are ahead of Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson on 85.47.
Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbi are fifth with 84.28 points.
The French pair won their first European championships title together in January, a sixth for Cizeron.
He was also a five-time world champion with his former partner Papadakis.
