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American figure skating stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates made history Saturday with their record seventh U.S. figure skating title in their final competition ahead of the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The three-time reigning world champions, performing a flamenco-style dance to a version of the Rolling Stones’ hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi western “Westworld,” performed the best free skate of the season and finished with 228.87 points.
“The feeling we got from the crowd today was like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” Chock said.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States perform during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships – Boston at TD Garden on March 28, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Jurij Kodrun – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)
They will be the big favorites to win gold next month in Italy.
“I felt so much love and joy,” Chock continued, “and I am so grateful for this moment.”
U.S. Figure Skating will announce its selections on Sunday.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik finished second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko third with 206.95, making these two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on Team USA for the upcoming Winter Games.
The men’s medals were also to be decided on Saturday, although two-time world champion Ilia Malinin had built such a lead after his short program that the self-proclaimed “Quad God” would have to stumble mightily to miss out on a fourth straight title.
The United States has also qualified the maximum three men’s spots for the Winter Games, and it’s a tight competition between second-place Tomoko Hiwatashi, fan favorite Jason Brown, Andrew Torgashev and Maxim Naumov to round out the national podium.
The last time Chock and Bates competed at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, they initially saw their gold medal go to an opponent who was later disqualified for doping violations.
Chock and Bates initially had to settle for team silver with their American teammates on the podium at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Team Russia and Kamila Valieva, who was 15 at the time, stood over them with their gold medals.
It wasn’t until late January 2024, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules, that Chock, Bates and the United States were declared legitimate 2022 gold medalists.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in the ice dance championships at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday, January 27, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine during a doping test at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in December 2021. She has been suspended for four years and stripped of all her competitive results since that date.
Chock and Bates talked about what their message would be to Valieva today during an interview at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media summit in October.
“I think it’s hard to imagine what a 15-year-old went through and in that kind of situation,” Bates said. “And I know how stressful it is to be an elite athlete as an adult, at 36 years old. And I think grace should be given to humans at all levels. And we can never really know the full picture, at least from our perspective. … I really don’t know what I would say to him.”
Chock added, “I would just wish him well as I would. I think life is short. And, at the end of the day, we’re all humans just going through our own human experience together. And no matter what anyone did or didn’t do and how it affected you, I think it’s important to remember that we’re humans as a collective, and we’re all here for this, our only moment on earth, at the same time. And I just wish people had a healthy, happy life, full of people who love them.”
Chock and Bates had to wait more than two years after the first Olympics to get their rightful gold medals, and they were finally presented to them in a ceremony at the Paris Olympics last summer.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States perform at the gala exhibition during the ISU Nagoya Figure Skating Grand Prix Final at the IG Arena on December 7, 2025 in Nagoya, Japan. (Atsushi Tomura – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)
Chock, Bates and teammates Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou were treated to a specialized gold medal ceremony to receive the medals in front of more than 13,000 fans.
Chock and Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive times world championships in nearly three decades in March when they beat Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
