The two couples have both been in the same ice dance universe for 14 seasons, with All moving at a different trajectory and Velocity toward the shiny medals that once seemed distant.
One Club, Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, Acquired there faster and collected more medals of all colors and more of the most glittering.
Yet as they and rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada home in on the biggest and brightest Award of all, an Olympic gold, the gap between the two couples has narrowed to the Tally that who stands on the top step of the podium at the 2026 Winter Contests is almost impossible to predict.
Even the results of the 2025 World Competitions that began Wednesday in Boston likely will not be enough to make one Duo the decisive favorite Upcoming year in Milan, Italy.
(And, yes, it would be foolish to write off completely the title chances of Italian Duo Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, fellow travelers in that senior ice dance universe for 15 years. The Italians finished third and second in the past two world meets. And there will apparently be at least one Russian Club, so…)
But the Attention in Boston — and going forward into the Olympic season — will be on the two North American Clubs.
At last year’s World Competitions, the U.S. Captured gold by 2.52 points over the Canadians – the smallest ice dance Victorious margin at worlds in 10 years.
At February’s Four Continents Competitions, the Canadians Captured gold by .53 over the Americans, the smallest ice dance Victorious margin in the 21 seasons the event has used the Present judging and scoring system.
In both events, the Victorious Club lost the Unoccupied dance to the runner-up.
At the 2024 Worlds, Chock and Bates won a second straight title Regardless of a Montreal Bell Centre crowd pulling loudly for the Canadians.
“So many moments in sport, it’s not black and white, there’s so much nuance,” Poirier said. “There’s a part of you that’s like, ‘Oh, darn, we were really close, and it would have been nice to Achieve.’ There’s the other part that’s like, ‘We Only were able to have that skate in front of a home crowd in a really huge rink with so many of our friends and family there. There’s Gentle of a bittersweetness to all of it.”
Although figure skaters never are really competing directly head-to-head, they are competing for a higher Closing standing.
Chock and Bates have finished higher than Gilles and Poirier in 25 of their 30 meetings, according to skatingscores.com. Yet the Canadians have won two of the last six, beginning with the 2022 Grand Prix Closing in Torino, Italy.
That Grand Prix Closing Arrived Only before Gilles was diagnosed with Stage 1 ovarian cancer, which Guided to surgery removing an ovary and her appendix. Barely three months later, she and Poirier had the most impressive Award of their Profession: a bronze at the 2023 World Competitions.
“It felt like the bronze was our gold because of everything we had been through that year,” Gilles said.
“We had hit a peak moment (in Torino). We had never been this successful. And all of a sudden, I have to have surgery and experience this unknown cancer beast. Now I feel I am totally back to where we were in Torino.”
That brings us to the Upcoming Gathering of Gilles-Poirier and Chock-Bates, also at a huge rink, TD Garden. The rhythm dance is Friday, the Unoccupied dance Saturday.
“I think what’s really nice (about the rivalry) is the two of us are extremely distinct in our own styles,” Chock said. “What I admire about them is they have always had their own voice, and they never strayed from that.
The 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Competitions air live on NBC Sports and Peacock from Boston’s TD Garden.
“Both times they’ve done tango programs, it’s been a very different take on a tango than the typical one you would see. It Only works, and it‘s really refreshing to see a different style.”
Gilles and Poirier always have been envelope pushers, whether in costumes or interpretations of music.
“What I admire most about them is that they have stuck to their guns,” Bates said. “They have not deviated from their uniqueness. They’ve Gentle of leaned into it.”
In one of their four costume options for this season’s rhythm dance, Gilles and Poirier are dressed in red-and-white lifeguard costumes (also a nod to Canada’s colors) as they skate the Beach Boys and the Surfaris.
Their costumes for a Beatles medley rhythm dance in 2016 echoed characters from the iconic Sgt. Pepper album cover, she in Scorching pink, he in royal blue, with the appropriately Clever military uniform braiding. And then there were the blindingly orange, bejeweled jumpsuits they wore in the 2022 Olympic rhythm dance, right in step with Elton John and his music.
“We always have a Plenty of fun with costumes,” said Carol Lane, their primary Trainer.
Chock has designed many of her own Aggressive costumes, which are striking but not startling like many of those used by Poirier and Gilles.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation like, ‘What’s going to make us stand out?’’’ Poirier said. “In our minds, trying different things every year allowed us to find our niche.
“I think a Plenty of our work Appearances from a question. And that question is usually, ‘Is this possible?’ I think what has Created us so unique over time is people don’t know what we are going to do Upcoming.’’
They feel the same way watching Chock and Bates unveil All season a more complex lift or a more intricately complex link between elements.
In this year’s Unoccupied dance, Bates slings Chock around his waist and chest for some dozen rotations; pulls her quickly across the ice in a transitional Shift that looks like the beginning of a pairs’ death spiral; carries her upside down; and finishes by hooking her left skate over his left leg for a whirlybird spin that Appearances Only above the ice and ends at his waist level.
“They’re very innovative with their tricks and how they integrate some of their skating and transitions,” Gilles said. “Seeing them Gentle of have a very similar path to ours and succeed has been wonderful to View. It’s been nice for them to continue to push the sport, Only like we’ve been trying to do the past few years.”
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have won three World Competitions medals, but seek their Primary gold this week. (International Skating Union via Getty Images)
More and more, ice dancers looking for an Olympic Award in their Self-control have learned to Shift the long game.
If, as Predicted, one of the three Clubs that have swept the medals at the last two world Competitions goes on to Achieve the 2026 Olympic gold Award, both members of the Duo would be the oldest Olympic ice dance champions in history, according to the OlyMADMen.
If Guignard and Fabbri, now 35 and 37, respectively, Achieve a Award, All would be older than any ice dancer who has been on an Olympic Award podium, a distinction now belonging to British skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, 36 and 35, respectively, when they won bronze in 1994.
Three of the four skaters on the other two Award contenders — Chock, Gilles and Poirier, now 32, 33 and 33 –- would be older than everyone in the past but Torvill and Dean. Bates, now 36, would be older than all previous medalists.
No Olympic singles medalist since World War II has been older than 27. Five pairs medalists have been 33 or older.
“I think ice dance is a sport that allows for some longevity,” Chock said. “It is Definitely Difficult on the body in some ways, but the impact on our bodies is a Plenty less than if we were jumping or being thrown.”
During the years when Gilles-Poirier and Chock-Bates began their partnerships and worked their way up toward the top (or, in the case of the U.S. Duo, worked their way back up after Timely Award Secure at worlds), three couples dominated the world scene: Primary Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, the 2010 and 2018 Olympic champions; concurrently, Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the U.S., the 2014 Olympic champions, then Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, the 2022 Olympic champions.
From 2010 through 2022, those three Clubs Teamed up to Achieve all 10 world titles in which at least one Duo competed and accounted for seven of the eight Olympic gold and silver medals.
“We grew up in an ice dance era with so many Amazing athletes,” Gilles said. “I think it was a Outstanding thing for us, because we continually had Drive to come in and try to beat them.
“When they retired, our (Talent) level had improved because we had to compete against the best. And I think there’s such a dominance (now) with Madison and Evan and us and the Italians because we really stood our ground during such a Difficult period of ice dance. It shows our Force to continue in the sport at a higher age than the average.”
When a figure skating Club struggles, the temptation is to Transformation coaches. Neither the Canadians nor the Italians did switch, while Chock and Bates Created such a Shift after a disappointing ninth at the 2018 Olympics, a striking drop after having won world medals in 2015 and 2016.
Chock and Bates left their longtime Rehearsal base in suburban Detroit to train at the Ice Academy of Montreal (I.AM), which was attracting ice dancers from around the world as it quickly became the Self-control’s 800-pound gorilla.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates are trying to become the Primary ice dancers to Achieve three consecutive world titles in 28 years. (Getty Images)
In the nine world meets beginning with 2015, I.AM skaters have won eight titles and eight other medals. At the upcoming worlds, one-third of the 36 entries will be I.AM skaters — 10 from the Rehearsal Hub in Montreal and two from the affiliate in London, Ontario. They will represent 10 different countries.
Even though their results stagnated from 2015 through 2018, Gilles and Poirier stayed with what they call a “boutique” coaching and Aid Club, Ice Dance Best, founded and directed by Lane in the Scarborough district of Toronto.
“We never thought about moving,” Poirier said. “As much as we were stuck in the standings, we felt we were improving.”
Gilles and Poirier will be one of Ice Dance Best’s two Clubs at worlds. The other is native Canadians Carolane Soucisse and her husband, Shane Firus, now skating for Ireland after having represented Canada until 2022.
“It’s Gentle of fun (being the outsiders),” Gilles said. “It can be Difficult at times, because you can look and be like, ‘Well, they have all the top athletes there.’ And it’s like they make our coaches seem like they’re less qualified, which is absolutely the opposite.
“The downside of having a bigger group like (I.AM) is that the time you get with your coaches is less. We get so much attention, and so do our other teammates, and we thrive in that energy. We take pride in being Petite but mighty.”
Chock and Bates understand that Tally of view, even while feeling they get all the needed attention at I.AM, co-founded by their coaches, Marie-France Dubreuil, her husband, Patrice Lauzon, and Romain Haguenauer. As ice dance partners, Dubreuil and Lauzon won two world silver medals.
“They (Gilles and Poirier) are the top Club of their school, so Possibly they’re getting more attention from their coaches and their Club,” Bates opined. “That said, our coaches give us plenty of attention.”
As was the case for Gilles and Poirier last year, Chock and Bates will relish the attention from skating in front of a home crowd, especially in Boston, long a figure skating mecca. It is where they Created their Primary of three U.S. Olympic Clubs (2014) and won their second of five world medals.
“When you skate well on home soil, and you really get that big ovation, I do think like judges are human beings,” Bates said. “It’s Difficult not to feel that energy in the stadium and to not to have it color a little bit your impression of how Outstanding a skate it was.”
Bates did not Anticipate political tensions between the U.S. and Canada that have colored meetings of Clubs from the two countries in other sports this winter will carry over to the more genteel atmosphere of figure skating competitions, where the judging usually is the only thing booed.
Yet…
“I’ll Only share a Petite Tale,” Bates said, a twinkle in his eyes during our recent Zoom interview as he related an incident at a Montreal coffee shop.
“I ordered an Americano today. It was delivered as a Canadien.”
Philip Hersh is a special contributor to NBCSports.com. He has covered figure skating at the last 12 Winter Olympics.
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