Sawt Falasteen - French Olympic ice dance champions laud 'greatest gift'

After just a year performing together, Cizeron, 31, and 33-year-old Laurence Fournier Beaudry pipped reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates to the title in Milan.

The Americans had been the favourites having won the last three world titles.

But they were not counting on the driving ambition of Cizeron, who won Olympic gold alongside Gabriella Papadakis in 2022, and his new Canadian dance partner, who only gained French citizenship last November.

"We had wanted it so badly. We had imagined and visualised this victory so much that it was a little surreal to experience it for real. It was truly a very intense wave of emotions," Cizeron told AFP in an interview.

"We're trying to savour it as much as possible because it's easy to downplay it. But it's been such a long journey that it really means a lot."

Their debut season had been a torrid ride on and off the ice with accusations of control and manipulation flying.

Cizeron and Papadakis last competed together after claiming a fifth world title in 2022.

That partnership ended painfully, with Papadakis accusing him in a book released this year of having exerted a form of "control" over her during their career.

Fournier Beaudry was also without a partner after the suspension of her ex-companion on the ice and in life, Nikolaj Sorensen, who was implicated in a sexual abuse case in 2012.

"I think I must have a guardian angel," said Cizeron.

"Fate put Laurence in my path. It was probably a great coincidence that my close friend was also the best figure skater in the world.

"I think it was pretty obvious to many people who knew us well. It's simply the greatest gift of our lives."

Fournier Beaudry added: "We really experienced it as a blank canvas where we could write something new and achieve all the goals, including winning the Olympic gold medal.

"For me, it was like fulfilling a very, very, very long-held dream."

- 'Impossible challenge ' -

But it was not plain sailing.

The pair arrived in Milan under a cloud after Papadakis's book and the accusations against Fournier Beaudry's former partner.

They say the difficulties made them even stronger, and they lifted their first title together at the European championships in January.

"We set ourselves the goal of winning gold," said Cizeron.

"We're ambitious, we love competition. That's really what drove us to get here, and we didn't hide it.

"I think I experienced it slightly differently, because with Gabriella (Papadakis), we had a fairly smooth rise to the top.

"We still managed to stay at the top of the competition for over eight years.

"And this time, we had everything to build from scratch. It was less straightforward.

"In ten months, we went from never having taken two steps together to being Olympic champions.

"It was a challenge that seemed impossible to most people, and above all, we knew that obstacles were going to be put in our way.

"That multiplied our determination tenfold."

Their return had not been universally welcomed, as it threatened to shake up the established ice dance order.

But Cizeron said he had faith that what counted was their performances on the ice.

"There has always been this illusion of an established order in skating. But it's just an illusion," he said.

"We showed it with Gabriella, we showed it again with Laurence. But it displeases some people, obviously. It's competition, it's natural. But it's true that it was more complicated than we thought."

Fournier Beaudry said she had not been overwhelmed by the idea of teaming up with the reigning Olympic champion.

"Guillaume gave me an exceptional opportunity. He was very open. We had a lot of room to follow each other and discover one another.

"So it allowed me to develop and also to believe in our potential, to believe in myself, to believe in him, and to form the duo we are today."

C.Hamad--SF-PST