MILAN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron are the unlikely protagonists of one of the most remarkable reinventions of the Winter Games.
Their ice dance gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics, sealed with Wednesday's lyrical free programme to music from The Whale movie, capped a whirlwind season that began less than a year ago when Cizeron approached Fournier Beaudry with an unexpected proposal - over a glass of wine - to skate together.
Neither had been actively competing when the idea surfaced, but within months they had transformed into Olympic champions.
"A year ago, we allowed ourselves to dream," the 31-year-old Cizeron told Reuters.
"We were very, very ambitious. And we (had been) missing that, we had been missing the training also, but I think we were missing the ambition, the curiosity, the desire to go further, to push ourselves.
"And then the need to see what we were still capable of on the ice together. There were a lot of steps to get to this result (on Wednesday). The stars aligned so perfectly, with a perfect precision and timing so perfectly."
Competing in only their fifth international event since teaming up in March, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron scored 225.82 points, edging Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates (224.39).
The French duo's partnership came under intense scrutiny.
Cizeron's previous partner Gabriella Papadakis, who retired after the two won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, released a memoir labelling Cizeron "controlling" and "demanding."
He called it a"smear campaign" and said he had instructed his lawyers to halt the defamatory claims.
Fournier Beaudry's partner Nikolaj Sorensen was suspended in 2024 for six years for sexual maltreatment. He was investigated over an alleged assault of an American figure skating coach and former skater in 2012. The suspension has since been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.
A tearful Fournier Beaudry, who has dated Sorensen for the past 12 years, opened up about being caught up in the fallout in the Glitter & Gold Netflix documentary.
So the 33-year-old said she was pleasantly surprised when Cizeron suggested they team up.
"I think it was a really good idea... and we've come a long way since that night," said the Canadian, who received French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics.
Cizeron added: "At the beginning she thought it was for doing shows. So then I said to her 'no, no, no'."
"I never would have believed he'd come back to competition to compete with me, so I was very flattered," Fournier Beaudry added of Cizeron, who won five world titles with Papadakis.
"He's the best skater in the world, so I was really committed, I threw myself into it completely."
They virtually floated across the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Wednesday with seamless edge work and airy lifts, including one in which Cizeron is crouched at a sharp angle inches off the ice and Fournier Beaudry is balanced on one of his hips, arms outstretched.
"At the beginning of our collaboration, we tried to do a lot of exploration and really use each other's best qualities to find things like that, that are quite exceptional and unique," Cizeron said.
Fournier Beaudry said they were able to develop synchronicity so quickly because they had been friends for years, sharing the same coaches and training base in Montreal.
"(The fact that) we'd already developed a great relationship outside the ice, as teammates we spent our time together outside of competitions, made it so we knew each other very well," she said.
Asked about their future competitive plans, the duo said they will compete at the world championships in Prague next month, but were noncommittal beyond that.
For now, they plan to soak up a moment that Cizeron said felt like "a waking dream."
"I think we're starting to realize how far we've come in the last year," he said. "We've worked so hard, and at the same time, it's gone by so fast. So we're really trying to fully enjoy this victory. We're definitely on cloud nine."
(Reporting by Noemie Olive in Milan; Writing by Lori Ewing; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
