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The International Skating Union has defended a judge’s controversial score that left Madison Chock and Evan Bates just short of Olympic gold earlier this week.
Chock and Bates settled for silver after Jezabel Dabouis favored Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron by almost eight points over the three-time free dance world champions.
“It is normal that there is a range of scores awarded by different judges on a panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the ISU said, adding that it had “full confidence in the scores awarded and remains fully committed to fairness”.
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USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates with the silver medals (left) and France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry with the gold medals (right) after the figure skating ice dance, free dance, at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on the fifth day of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, Italy. Photo date: Wednesday February 11, 2026. (Fabrizio Carabelli/PA Images via Getty Images)
Chock called for judges to be vetted for the sake of transparency.
“It would definitely be helpful if it was more understandable for viewers, to see more transparent judgment and understand… what’s really going on,” she told CBS News.
“I think it’s also important for the skaters that the judges are scrutinized and scrutinized to make sure they’re putting in their best performance as well,” she continued. “Because there is a lot at stake for the skaters when they give their best, and we deserve for the judges to give us their all as well and for it to be a fair and level playing field.”
Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States compete in the figure skating ice dance free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Chock later said she and Bates would “consider” appealing.
“I think skating is such a subjective sport, but I think for the sake of fairness, it’s good that the judges are scrutinized for their work. Not just after this competition but at every competition, to make sure there’s a fair and equal playing field for all athletes,” Chock told Access Hollywood.
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“We did everything we could. We wouldn’t have changed anything about our performance, or any of our performances, or the way we approached the week. We’re very proud of the work we did. We left nothing to chance, so we could leave the Games satisfied and accomplished with ourselves.”
Chock and Bates followed the French couple by 0.46 of a point entering the free dance Wednesday night, and they were looking for their first Olympic medal in ice dancing with the hope that it would obviously be gold. But the judges decided the French duo had done enough to ultimately defeat the Americans.
Dabouis’ margin was so large that if his score had been taken out of the equation, Chock and Bates would have won gold.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates pose for a photo after the announcement of the Milan 2026 Olympic figure skating team at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
Many critics have called the system too confusing and still too subjective, and more than 14,000 people had signed a petition on Change.org as of Friday asking the ISU and IOC to investigate the latest scoring controversy.
