Madison Chock, Evan Bates Recommend a Better Vetting Process for Olympic Judges

Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the silver medal in ice dancing on Wednesday after a shocking loss to France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. The French duo has been at the forefront of controversy in the past few months heading into the Winter Olympics.

The American married couple admitted on Thursday that it’s been an emotional 24 hours for many reasons. On one hand, they’re proud of what they accomplished after 15 years of competing together; on the other hand, they’re understandably frustrated with the results.

“We’ve certainly gone through a roller coaster of emotions, especially in the last 24 hours,” Chock said, via NBC News. “And I think what we will take away is how we felt right after our skates and how proud we were of what we accomplished and how we handled ourselves throughout the whole week. Putting out four great performances at the Olympic Games is no small feat, and we’ve got a lot to be proud of.”

Fans watching Wednesday’s ice dance final couldn’t believe the judges scored Chock and Bates lower than Beaudry and Cizeron, who appeared to have made obvious mistakes in their routine. As the judges’ scores have been released, fans have noticed that there might have been some bias for the French team. Five of the nine judges ranked Chock and Bates first, yet the French duo took home the gold.

On top of this, a French judge scored Beaudry and Cizeron much higher than the American duo in both the rhythm and free dance routines. On Wednesday, the French judge scored the former 7.71 points higher than the latter, while the other judges didn’t give either team more than a 4.1-point advantage in any category. This scoring controversy may begin a conversation surrounding biases in figure skating scoring moving forward.

Chock agreed that some changes could be beneficial to the athletes themselves and the viewers.

“I think it would definitely be helpful if it’s more understandable for the viewers to just see more transparent judging and understand what’s really going on,” Chock said, via CBS News. “I think it’s also important for the skaters that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are putting out their best performance. There’s a lot on the line for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all. We deserve to have the judges also giving us their all, and for it to be a fair and even playing field.”

American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates claimed a controversial silver medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Wednesday, falling just 1.43 points behind Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, the duo from France who took the gold.

Now, many experts and fans are… pic.twitter.com/iTHFphhKsS
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 12, 2026

Chock and Bates are three time Olympic medalists now as they have two gold medals from the team event in 2022 and this year.

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