THE OLYMPIC MOMENT THEY HAD DREAMED OF
© Eurosport screenshot
On February 4, they would parade into the National Stadium in Beijing, during the Opening Ceremony of 2022 Olympic Games, a precious part of the French Olympic delegation.
You surely remember it: the French V-shaped parade – standing for Victoire/Victory – stayed as one of the iconic images of the ceremony.
Eight days later, Gabriella and Guillaume would take the ice for their Olympic rhythm dance. Their second Olympic campaign was about to begin, in an attempt to win the gold, and win them different memories than those of PyeongChang.
February 12, 2022. Last to skate in the penultimate group of dancers, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron offer an iconic rhythm dance, in what stays as a first at the Olympics.
The first time waacking – a form of street dance created in the LGBT clubs of Los Angeles during the ’70s – is brought, from clubs and international dance scenes, onto the ice. While waacking on the music of John Legend, one can see their fast, sharp, staccato movements, the trademark movements of the dance, but also their languid flow, arms in the air, feet floating on the ice.
Their rhythm dance at the Olympics? Addictive to the fingertips.
And their joy at the end: what a beautiful series of small, heartwarming moments. Gabriella smiling to the ears, laughing even, in Guillaume’s arms. Them breathing in unison, before bowing to the audience. Guillaume kissing her on the head. Their joyful faces while heading for the boards, hugging the coaches, in the sounds of their “Bravo!”
The pressure they put on themselves had been tremendous. And you literally see it vanish in the air, while watching the collective scenes of joy. And their work, their efforts, their performance get rewarded with a world record score: 90.83 points, surpassing their previously owned WR.
Minutes later, in the press conference room, Gabriella will talk about “positive superstitions” and the relief they felt after the dance.
“China has been a lucky place for us, we won our first senior Grand Prix and our first World title in China, and we were always happy to come here. Today we felt some liberation and relief, the beginning is always the most stressful part. We are very happy that we performed our best and enjoyed it”.
Finally, they have the Olympic moment they had dreamed of – one to completely erase their nerve-wrecking rhythm dance in PyeongChang, and a certain Olympic atmosphere loaded with questions and regrets.
Four years after that moment, that air that kept amassing in a pressure balloon in their minds had finally found its way out.
A FREE DANCE LIKE A MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
February 14, 2022. Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are the last to take the ice, and their free dance to Gabriel Fauré’s Élégie amasses no less than 26 perfect scores for Program Components from the judges – including a full 10 for Composition.
A program encapsulating an entire creative process, their journey, their skating style and their career – as if it were a message in a bottle.
►►► Gabriella: “It couldn’t have been just anything – [the free dance] had to be special, and we put a lot of our thoughts into creating something that we would be proud of, if it was our last. That was the intention that we had”.
When scores show up – and it’s a world record total score again: 226.98 points – they have the confirmation: they are the 2022 Olympic champions. And only the second French Olympic ice dance champions in history after Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat in 2002.
Minutes after the flower ceremony, while talking to the media in the mixed zone, they smile, they laugh, look at each other and laugh again. One thing is sure: this particular feat, them winning the Olympics, hasn’t really sunk in.
Gabriella: “We don’t realize it yet – my brain hasn’t yet understood, I have this feeling of watching a movie about my life”.
Guillaume: “It’s completely unreal, as if we’ve traveled through time. We’ve been so obsessed with this medal for four years, that being on the other side of the curtain doesn’t measure up yet”.
But they know the efforts they put into it – they were all very real.
Guillaume: “The silver four years ago made us want the gold medal more than anything else. I think we’ve never worked that hard for a specific goal throughout our career. All the gold medals [that we had won] came one after the other, without us really wanting them as a precise goal. This year we gathered the courage to actually want to win, and that was a pretty important shift”.
And they won it in China, the place where it all started. They have come full circle.
THE AWARD FOR THE PROUDEST COACH GOES TO…
As for Romain Haguenauer, and all the coaches of Ice Academy in Montreal present in Beijing, it must have been a morning full of tension and emotions, with no less than 10 ice dance teams to take care of, to get ready, and be worried for, out of the 20 qualified for the free dance.
But the outcome surely made up for everything, it was easy to see: Romain, Marie-France, Patrice, happy for all their students, and then, victorious fists in the air, when seeing the French’s scores.
And then Romain, in an iconic image of these Games: on his feet, near the bench in the Kiss and Cry, smiling with his eyes while watching some of I.AM best teams hugging, congratulating Gabriella and Guillaume for their success.
A proud coach. A happy coach. A keeper of the moment.
The same day, in an interview for Eurosport France, Romain Haguenauer will be “debriefed” and he’ll describe his state of mind with a satisfied yet tired smile: “I’ve just come from the ice rink, we’ve had quite a busy morning… It’s a special kind of emotion: finally, they are Olympic champions – and this is absolutely huge! And I don’t know if they realize yet they are Olympic champions. I think they are like me now: they worked so much for this medal, that I imagine they’re still on their cloud, and don’t realize it yet”.
What makes them so special, the coach will be asked more than once by the journalists in Beijing – and, in an interview for AFP, he’ll emphasize the very essence of Gabriella and Guillaume’s partnership.
“They’re one of the first couples who were able to integrate all the technical elements into an artistic concept, while also being able to convey emotions… [They have a] skating that breathes”.
They “changed ice dancing”, they brought “a huge artistic evolution” to the discipline.
And now… what’s next for them?
2022 Worlds in Montpellier, at the end of March.
And after Worlds on home soil? Will there be a chapter to follow in Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron’s competitive career? In their story as a team?
4 months ago, in Turin, we asked the coach, we asked the skaters the very same question.