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U.S. figure skating stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates made history Saturday with their record seventh U.S. figure skating title in their final pre-Olympics competition in Cortina, Milan.
The three-time reigning world champions, who performed a flamenco-style dance to a version of the Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi Western show “Westworld,” produced the best free skate of the season, finishing with 228.87 points.
“The feeling that we got from the crowd today was unlike anything 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 heavy favorites to win gold next month in Italy.
“I felt so much love and joy,” Chock continued, “and I’m so grateful for this moment.”
US Figure Skating will announce its selections on Sunday.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 206.95, making these two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on the U.S. team 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-styled “Quad God” had to stumble heavily to miss out on a fourth straight title.
The U.S. has also qualified the maximum of three men’s spots for the Winter Games, and the competition is close between runner-up 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 saw their gold initially 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, there were 15 at the time, stood over them with their gold medals.
It was not until late January 2024, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found Valieva guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, that Chock, Bates and the United States were declared the rightful 2022 gold winners.
UN CALLS ON COUNTRIES TO CHANGE ARMS ACTS DURING WINTER OLYMPICS, DO NOT DENY VISAS TO ANY NATION’S ATHLETES
Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in the ice dance championship at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, during an anti-doping test at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in December 2021. She was suspended for four years and stripped of all competition results since that date.
Chock and Bates talked about what their message to Valieva would be today during an interview at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s media summit in October.
“It’s hard, I think, to imagine what a 15-year-old has been through and under those kinds of situations,” Bates said. “And I know how stressful it is to be an elite athlete as an adult, as a 36-year-old. And I think grace should be given to people across the board. And we can never really know the whole situation, at least from our point of view. … I really don’t know what I would say to her.”
Chock added: “I just wanted to wish her well the way I would. I think life is short. And at the end of the day, we’re all human beings just going through our own human experience together. And regardless of what someone has or hasn’t done and how it’s affected you, I think it’s important to remember that we’re human as a collective and we’re all here on earth for this, and the same I want to have time to be healthy on earth. life full of people who love them.”
Chock and Bates had to wait more than two years after the inaugural Olympics to get their rightful gold medals, and they were finally presented during a ceremony at the Paris Olympics last summer.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States perform in the gala exhibition during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Finals Nagoya at 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 in a row world championships for nearly three decades in March when they defeated Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
