A controversy has arisen at the Winter Olympics concerning a French judge allegedly favoring her country’s figure skaters to secure the gold medal. The French duo, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, clinched the gold with a total score of 225.82, narrowly surpassing Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates by 1.43 points.
The scrutiny intensified when the scoring pattern of French judge Jezabel Dabouis came to light. The event required pairs to perform two routines, the rhythm dance and the free dance. Despite Chock and Bates being the reigning world champions in the discipline, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron received higher scores after the rhythm dance, with discrepancies in judgment among the panel of judges.
Dabouis notably awarded her compatriots a substantial advantage of 5.74 points over Chock and Bates, raising eyebrows over the fairness of the judging process. In the subsequent free dance segment, although five judges favored the American pair, Dabouis awarded a significantly higher score of 7.71 points to Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron.
The International Skating Union addressed the backlash by stating that variations in scores among judges are normal, with mechanisms in place to manage these differences. They affirmed confidence in the fairness of the scores issued. In response to the incident, Chock and Bates expressed a mix of emotions, emphasizing their pride in their performances and sportsmanship throughout the competition.
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