French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron is at the center of a judging controversy after winning gold in the ice dance competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
Cizeron and partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry captured the top prize following a free dance that observers criticized for visible errors in their twizzle sequences during both the Rhythm and Free Dance segments. By contrast, silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates were widely praised for delivering what CNN Sports described as a “nearly perfect” performance.
The French pair edged the three-time world champion Americans by less than a point overall, 225.82 to 224.39. But as Forbes reported, fans and analysts quickly pointed to discrepancies in the scoring, fueling accusations of bias among certain judges.
Panel averages show the French judge awarded Chock and Bates 129.74 points — the lowest score given by any of the nine judges and more than five points below the panel average — while scoring Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry at 137.45, the second-highest total and nearly three points above the average.
The Italian judge also drew scrutiny for ranking compatriots Marco Fabbri and Charlène Guignard — who ultimately finished fourth — in bronze medal position despite a visible error in their Free Dance. That placement would have put them ahead of Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the eventual bronze medalists.
The American judge, Janis Engel, gave Chock and Bates their highest mark, 137.67. However, Engel’s score for the French team, 133.57, closely mirrored the panel average, undercutting claims of overt national favoritism in that instance.
Meanwhile, the Finnish judge was criticized for generally harsh scoring, awarding Chock and Bates a below-average 130.97. That same judge gave Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry 130.94 — nearly identical marks that would have placed the French pair just behind the Americans.
The controversy prompted some fans to dub the situation “SkateGate 2.0,” a nod to the judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In that case, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded gold over Canada’s Jamie Salé and David Pelletier despite the Canadians committing fewer errors. An investigation into allegations of coerced judging ultimately led to both pairs receiving gold medals.
Outrage among fans and members of the international skating community led to an online petition on Change.org calling for an independent investigation by the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union.
“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Skating Union (ISU) must take decisive action to ensure that all judging in the Winter Olympics remains impartial and meticulous,” the petition reads. “It is imperative that an independent investigation be launched into the judging process of the Ice Dance event in question. The credibility of the Games is at stake, and learning from the lessons of ‘SkateGate,’ we must prevent history from repeating itself.”
Even Fabbri and Guignard suggested the Americans deserved the title.
“I usually prefer Laurence and Guillaume,” Fabbri said. “But tonight, Chock and Bates deserved (gold),” to which Guignard replied: “I agree!”
NBC News reported that an ISU spokesperson defended the results.
“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the spokesperson said. “The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”
Chock and Bates, while measured in their response, maintained pride in their performance.
“We’ve certainly gone through a roller coaster of emotions, especially in the last 24 hours,” Chock said. “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.”
“I feel like life is sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way, and that’s life and that’s sport,” Bates added. “And it’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport.”
With the victory, Cizeron became the first ice dancer to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals after claiming gold in Beijing four years ago with former partner Gabriella Papadakis.
He is also one of 49 out LGBTQ athletes competing at this year’s Winter Games and one of only six to medal. The others include Poirier, part of Canada’s bronze medal-winning ice dance pair; U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn, gold medalist in the team event; short track speed skating bronze medalist Tineke den Dulk; Swiss freestyle skiing gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud; and American alpine skiing gold medalist Breezy Johnson.
At least 44 out LGBTQ athletes will compete at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, setting a record for a Winter Games, according to the LGBTQ sports news site Outsports.
The Games, which officially kick off on Friday, February 6, will feature 34 out women and 10 out men -- a roughly 7-to-2 ratio that is significantly lower than the 9-to-1 ratio seen at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
According to Outsports, the lower ratio reflects the fact that the Winter Olympics feature fewer team sports, where out female athletes are more common. In Milan, 22 of the 34 out women are ice hockey players, making hockey the sport with the largest LGBTQ presence.
Pascal Kaiser, a bisexual German football referee, proposed to his boyfriend, Moritz, at Cologne's RheinEnergieStadion ahead of a January 30 match between 1. FC Köln and VfL Wolfsburg, which ended in a 1-0 victory. Nearly 50,000 spectators witnessed the moment, which was widely shared online, according to the British magazine Attitude.
During the proposal, Kaiser emphasized queer visibility in sport, saying he wanted people to see "a man loving a man in football." The video became one of FC Köln's most-liked Instagram Reels, with the team calling it a "special moment." It has received more than 184,000 likes.
At least three players on the U.S. women's hockey team set to compete at next month’s Winter Olympics in northern Italy are LGBTQ, according to the LGBTQ sports website Outsports.
Hilary Knight, a 36-year-old forward and four-time Olympic medalist, is the team’s captain. Her medals include gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games and silver in 2010, 2014, and 2022.
Knight also captains the Seattle Torrent in the Professional Women’s Hockey League and will become the first U.S. hockey player to compete in five Olympic Games. She previously captained the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 2024 World Championships.
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