Why Guillaume Cizeron’s Winter Olympics victory is overshadowed by scandal

French ice dancing pair Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics just under a year after partnering up – an arguably fairytale ending to a stratospheric rise that has shook up the sport at its very highest level. But their partnership has been followed by controversy and scandal, including allegations of controlling behaviour and rape.

Cizeron, who came out as gay in 2020, won gold in ice dance at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing with his previous partner Gabriella Papadakis, who he had been paired with since 2004 until they split ways in 2024.

They announced their retirement in December 2024 but Cizeron subsequently shared his return to the sport, alongside a new partner, just a few months later.

Cizeron’s new partner, Fournier Beaudry, previously represented both Canada and Denmark on a national level before getting her French citizenship last year, just three months prior to the Winter Olympics.

In the ice dance final at Milan-Cortina 2026 on Wednesday (11 February), they beat out American husband-and-wife duo Evan Bates and Madison Chock, with Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier bagging the bronze.

“It was a lot of work, but from the beginning we had a lot of similarities in the way we trained and approached things,” Cizeron said of his and Fournier Beaudry’s partnership during a post competition interview.

“It was also a chance to evolve, it was playful, we had a lot of fun from the beginning.”

Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry’s pairing has been rife with scandal since the moment they announced their partnership in March 2025.

“Today, the universe offers us a new adventure. A duo born from friendship, respect, and love for the sport. A dance written by the years, and fueled by the fire of our dreams,” they said in a joint social media post.

After 20 years skating together and many medals, the split between Cizeron and Papadakis was not on good terms.

In January, Papadakis released her memoir, Pour ne pas disparaître (To Not Disappear, in English), in which she alleged Cizeron was “controlling” and “demanding”.

“The idea of being alone with him terrifies me. His attitude throws me off balance. Sometimes he ignores me; sometimes he plays the best friend, as if nothing were wrong […] His coldness chills me to the bone,” she claimed to France Info.

Papadakis also alleged Cizeron had threatened to stop skating with her, prior to their partnership officially ending, after she shared she wanted to file a legal complaint against a French figure skating coach she claimed raped her as a teenager.

“He told me that if I did, he wouldn’t want to skate with me anymore,” she wrote.

Cizeron in turn launched legal action and accused Papadakis of running a “smear campaign” against him.

Fournier Beaudry’s availability to be Cizeron’s new partner was not by chance either, due to a separate scandal that rocked their pairing.

She had skated with Nikolaj Sørensen since 2013, her boyfriend as well as ice dancing partner, and won several medals alongside him at the Danish Championships, Canadian Championships and other competitions.

In 2023, Sørensen was accused of sexually assaulting an American skater back in 2012 and was subsequently suspended from the sport for six years – a decision that effectively ended the 35-year-old’s career and, by proxy, Fournier Beaudry’s too.

He denied the allegation and it has not been brought in front of a court of law. The suspension was later overturned.

Fournier Beaudry has publicly supported her boyfriend, saying in a Netflix documentary release ahead of the Winter Olympics, Glitter & Gold: “I know my boyfriend 100%. I know him.”

The unnamed woman who accused Sørensen of sexual assault criticised Fournier Beaudry’s stance, with the American skater saying such comments “create a dangerous environment for skaters who need to report abuse”.

“The comments of the reigning Olympic champion and a team in contention for the upcoming Olympic title carry weight, and using their voices to publicly undermine a survivor’s truths further enforces the culture of silence in figure skating,” she said.