French pair win gold, four years after devastating wardrobe malfunction

The look on the faces of these Winter Olympians said everything after being tormented by a wardrobe malfunction “nightmare”.

Four years ago French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron made headlines for all the wrong reasons – a wardrobe malfunction.

Now, they’re making them for the right ones with a Valentine’s Day performance ending with a world record score of 226.98 and a gold medal in the ice dancing at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Papadakis’ dress had come undone at PyeongChang in 2018 and the pair just missed out on winning.

Cizeron famously accidentally unclipped the clasp at the back of Papadakis’ dress during a lift

four years ago and she was forced to complete the routine while trying to keep her chest covered.

“It was pretty distracting, kind of my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics,” she said at the time.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron have won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Picture: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Papadakis’ collar of her costume came off, partially exposing her, at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Picture: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

This time, wearing a sleek, shimmering red and gold costume, there were no such issues as they spun across the ice to “Elegie” by Gabriel Faure.

Speaking to Eurosport after the pair received a world record score of 90.83 in the rhythm dance section on Saturday, Cizeron said: “We are super happy with our performance, we are in a totally different place from where we were four years ago.”

“Mentally and in terms of preparation too. We did not have a good memory of the short program there. We are super happy with our performance so indeed, it is a little revenge.”

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of Team France react after receiving their score during the Ice Dance Free Dance. Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images.

It was perfect revenge for the five-time European and four-time world champions — who can now call themselves Olympic champions for the first time.

“I think we don’t believe it yet,” 26-year-old Papadakis said.

“Honestly it feels completely unreal.

“For years this was the only medal that we wanted and the past four years were just about that moment.”

Russia’s Nikita Katsalapov and Victoria Sinitsina, the reigning European and world champions after the French skipped those competitions because of Covid, had to settle for silver.

Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue took bronze in what they have said will be their last Olympics.

Cizeron, 27, is the first openly gay man to win gold in an individual Olympic figure skating event — Canada’s Eric Radford won a gold in 2018, but in the team event.

Cizeron said “Elegie” was “a melting pot of all the extreme emotions we can feel as humans and what we have been through ourselves, through our lives and through our careers”.

— with AFP

Originally published as French pair win gold, four years after devastating wardrobe malfunction