Madison Chock and Evan Bates have become so dominant in ice dance that not even a sudden illness could stop them on Saturday.
Two days after they started developing flu-like symptoms, the longtime figure skating partners took to the ice and performed a free dance at the U.S. Championships that was good enough for gold. Chock and Bates scored 215.92 points to easily beat Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko for their third straight title and fifth overall.
“I think Evan and I have always had a lot of determination and willpower,” Chock said, “and we thought, ‘Would we regret it if we didn’t go for it today and just do our best?’ And when the answer to that question was “Yes,” we said, “Okay, let’s make it happen.” Let’s come out and give it everything we’ve got.” We did that today and I am very proud of it.”
Carreira and Ponomarenko even defeated the reigning world champions in the free skate, finishing with 210.04 points, while Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville jumped over Caroline Green and Michael Parsons to take the bronze medal.
“We knew we were capable of being on the podium and it was a really big goal for us,” Bratti said. “And especially after the rhythm dance, we got a lot of motivation and confidence that we were capable of doing that. But it was definitely a surprise.”
The American Championships continued on Saturday evening with the pairs free skate. The men’s free skate is Sunday.
Chock and Bates took a big lead after the rhythm dance Thursday night, but at that point they both started feeling sick. The next morning, Chock said she couldn’t get out of bed and wondered if they could even compete on Saturday.
“If the game had been yesterday,” she said, “I don’t think we would have made it to the rink. Fortunately, there was an intermediate day to collect myself a bit. I just pushed the fluids in, had a good night’s sleep, said a few prayers and here we are.
Even though their free skate, set to music from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, wasn’t up to their own lofty standards, it was good enough to take them six to one of Meryl Davis and Charlie White for the most US titles.
Whether they will attempt to equal the record remains to be seen. Chock, 31, and Bates, 34, are getting married this summer and have said they decide annually whether they want to continue competing.
A determining factor could be the fact that the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games are less than two years away. Chock and Bates have been on three U.S. teams and narrowly missed the podium at the 2022 Games with a fourth-place finish.
However, they do have a medal from Beijing in the team event, even if they still don’t know the color. The medals were withheld as anti-doping authorities investigated a positive result from Kamila Valieva, a member of the winning team of Russian skaters, and while the Court of Arbitration for Sport heard a subsequent appeal in a case that dragged on.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is seeking a four-year ban for Valieva, which would disqualify her from Olympic competition and likely make the Americans team champions. The CAS ruling is expected soon, perhaps as early as this week.
“You know, we are the only two athletes from the Beijing team still competing. The rest of us have all moved on,” Bates said. “I think two years is too long for this decision to be made, and we may never know why it took so long. We look forward to finally completing something after a long wait.”
