Olympics – Determine skating – No slip this time as French dance duo return with a bang

By Chang-Ran Kim and Krystal Hu

BEIJING (Reuters) – 4 years after a fancy dress malfunction value them the ice dance title in Pyeongchang, French duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron made a classy return to the Winter Olympics with a world document rating within the rhythm dance on Saturday.

Carrying matching burgundy outfits and dancing to a medley of John Legend tunes together with ‘Made to Love’, the French pair delighted these in attendance with a dynamic routine that included quite a few crowd-pleasing lifts and synchronised twizzles, drawing an enthusiastic reception from an in any other case muted crowd.

The duo scored 90.83 – a 0.80 enchancment on their very own earlier document mark set in 2019 – to advance into Monday’s free dance. They are going to be making an attempt to turn out to be the primary French ice dancers to win the Olympic title since Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat struck gold in 2002.

Their beat closest rivals, Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, by 1.98 factors, whereas Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of america completed third with 87.13.

The night time supplied a welcome respite from the doping scandal that has been rocking the Video games after the gorgeous revelation that 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva had examined constructive for a banned coronary heart drug throughout her nationwide championships final December.

Her future on the Beijing Video games and a gold for the Russian Olympic Committee within the staff occasion now hangs within the stability amid a worldwide outcry over Moscow’s doping historical past.

The Court docket of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will rule on her destiny on Monday.

Valieva educated at a follow rink on Saturday and all eyes have been on her earlier than the ice dance took over on the Capital Indoor Stadium.

The group warmed up with extra cheers and applause because the night progressed and particularly when China’s Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu stepped up.

But it surely was Papadakis and Cizeron who turned the ice into fireplace with an outstanding routine.

In Pyeongchang, the clasp holding Papadakis’s halter-neck gown got here undone behind her neck firstly of their quick dance and he or she may very well be seen making an attempt to cease the outfit slipping off throughout the remainder of the programme.

The French pair had recovered in model for the free dance to say the silver medal behind Canadians Tessa Advantage and Scott Moir.

Papadakis had described the occasion as her ‘worst nightmare’ however the duo are actually over the incident and appear prepared to beat Beijing after their self-imposed hiatus to minimise the dangers of contracting COVID-19.

(Writing by Julien Pretot; Enhancing by Pritha Sarkar)