Olympics-Figure skating-New French duo Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron lead after rhythm dance

By Lori Ewing

MILAN, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France added another chapter to one of figure skating's most compelling revivals on Monday night, winning the rhythm dance at the Milano Cortina Olympics in only their fifth international event.

The duo, who teamed up last March, kept up their breakneck speed to the top of the ice dance world by scoring 90.18 points - their best ever - for their sleek fashion-runway-meets-ice-dance take on Madonna's "Vogue."

In a showdown that felt like the sharpening of a rivalry, they edged triple world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, who delivered a high-octane rhythm dance powered by rock and roll swagger for 89.72 points.

"We performed as well as we could, and now there's a bit of anticipation to see where we'll finish in the competition because we're very ambitious, we came here to win gold," Fournier Beaudry said.

Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (86.18), British duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (85.47) and Italian home favourites Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (84.28) completed the top five ahead of Wednesday's free dance.

Cizeron, the reigning Olympic champion and five-times world champion with former partner Gabriella Papadakis, had said last week that his partnership with Fournier Beaudry is "bonus time" for both skaters after they had believed their respective careers were over.

Papadakis retired after the Beijing Olympics, while Fournier Beaudry's partner Nikolaj Sorensen received a six-year suspension in 2024 for sexual maltreatment, although the suspension has been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.

After teaming up last spring, Canadian-born Fournier Beaudry received her French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics. The duo made an immediate impact on international ice, winning both their Grand Prix assignments before being edged by Chock and Bates at the Final in December.

On Monday, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron delivered a programme that was all sleek lines and sculpted precision, she in a Jean Paul Gaultier-inspired pink corset, and he in clean minimalistic black.

Every pose hit like a camera flash - angular, stylized, theatrical - as if they were skating through a high-gloss editorial spread.

BEST PERFORMANCE

"I think we gave the best performance we could tonight," said Cizeron. "It wasn't 100% perfect. It's true that we're very sensitive. We know very well what's perfect and what isn't as we skate. It's a bit of a trap to fall into that and forget to enjoy the moment.

"But we still managed to get to the end with a mix of focus and enjoyment. In those moments, I was really able to rely on Laurence and trust a bit in the training we'd had."

They had refined their posing through working with Brazilian Bieel Moraes, a vogue specialist who helped to choreograph their sharp arm movements.

"It wasn't that easy to learn," Cizeron said. "(Moraes) was an amazing artist who we really enjoyed working with, and we tried to incorporate as much voguing as we could.

"We wanted not only to do a voguing theme, but we wanted to get to the heart and understand the culture and understand the vocabulary that comes with it... the queer and voguing, the ballroom scene.

"So it feels really good to know that we haven't just vaguely copied a style of dance but we really wanted to honour it."

Married couple Chock and Bates, meanwhile, are making their fourth Olympic appearance, and while they have been a part of two U.S. team titles -- including here in Milan -- they have never climbed the Olympic medal podium in the individual event.

"I think the goal is to win a gold medal, but there's so much more," Bates said. "The goal is multifaceted. The goal is the preparation, handling the moment, being champions on and off the ice."

They lost a level on their midline step sequence on Monday, downgraded from a level four to a three.

"We feel like our approach has been great, and we wouldn't change anything about what we've done thus far, including how we skated tonight," Bates said.

"We're going to carry that forward Wednesday. That's what we're about. And we'll see, we'll see what the results are."

This season's rhythm dance theme of "music, dance styles and feelings of the 1990s" made Monday night's event feel like a throwback party, with fans shimmying their shoulders to music from George Michael to Madonna to Ricky Martin and the Spice Girls.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron had originally chosen Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," but they were not permitted to use it because it was recorded in 1989.