Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue just missed the podium at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. This year, they’ll be dancing on it with medals around their necks.
The American duo earned bronze in the ice dance event at the 2022 Beijing Games. France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who earned silver in 2018, came away with gold, while ROC’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov got silver.
Hubbell and Donohue secured their medal spot with a 130.89 score in Monday’s free dance at Capital Indoor Stadium, bringing their total score to 218.02. In 2018, the two placed fourth overall in PyeongChang and were less than five points away from earning bronze.
While Hubbell and Donohue missed out on the ice dance medal in 2018, this will not be their first Olympic hardware. The two were a part of the silver-winning U.S. squad in the team competition earlier in the 2022 Games, earning the top spot in the rhythm dance in a field that included Sinitsina and Katsalapov.
This is the fifth straight Olympics where the U.S. has medaled in the event and second straight time earning bronze. Maia and Alex Shibutani edged Hubbell and Donohue at the last Olympics.
While Hubbell and Donohue made the jump from fourth to third, a U.S. pair still landed in the first spot outside the podium. Madison Chock and Evan Bates were in fourth place following the rhythm dance portion and jumped into first place with their 130.63 in the free skate. Each of the remaining three pairs jumped into first place with their respective dances, bumping Chock and Bates out of medal position.
Team USA had a third pair in the ice dance competition. Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker placed 11th after scoring a 115.16 in the free dance. The duo entered the second phase of the competition in 11th place, as well.
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Papadakis and Cizeron’s victory comes four years after disaster struck seconds into their 2018 Olympic journey. Papadakis performed through a wardrobe malfunction in the rhythm dance in PyeongChang, but the duo managed to obtain silver in the end. The French pair won back-to-back world championships following those Games and are now champions on the biggest stage in figure skating.
Here are the full standings for the ice dance competition:
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- Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron, France: 226.98
- Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov, ROC: 220.51
- Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue, United States: 218.02
- Madison Chock/Evan Bates, United States: 214.77
- Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri, Italy: 207.05
- Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, ROC: 205.07
- Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier, Canada: 204.78
- Olivia Smart/Adrian Diaz, Spain: 199.11
- Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Sorensen, Canada: 192.35
- Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson, Great Britain: 191.64
- Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker, United States: 189.74
- Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu, China: 184.42
- Majorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha, Canada: 181.02
- Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin, ROC: 179.82
- Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis, Finland: 173.88
- Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler, Czech Republic: 168.32
- Natalia Kalisek/Maksym Spodyriev, Poland: 167.31
- Tina Garabedian/Simon Proulx Senecal, Armenia: 167.03
- Maria Kazakova/Georgy Reviya, Georgia: 164.33
- Oleksandra Nazarova/Maksym Nikitin, Ukraina: 162.87
