On Saturday, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the gold medal in the ice dancing competition after overcoming a fall in their free dance.

After Friday’s rhythm dance, Chock and Bates—who became engaged to be married last year—held a lead of more than three points and continued to compete despite Chock falling to the ice halfway through their free routine.

Overall, the Americans scored 226.01 points, followed by Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (217.88) and Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (219.85).

The current Olympic and world ice dance champions from France, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, will not be competing, and because to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russian skaters have once more been prohibited.

Chock and Bates had previously won one silver and two bronze medals while competing in their tenth world championship.

I can’t really express how delighted I am; we’ve been working toward this for years, and it just occurred 10 seconds ago,” remarked Bates.

Chock described her surprise slip as “a little breast” and expressed her “elation” upon winning the contest.

I was really invested in our performance, and I felt a connection with Evan right away, she added.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson from UK came in fourth with a score of 214.73.

AFP