Amid growing concerns of potential manipulation in figure skating judging, the true victors of the Winter Olympics are advocating for a thorough vetting process for judges. This call comes after suspicions arose regarding a French judge’s questionable voting history.
In a dramatic turn of events in Milan on Wednesday, American skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates were denied a win. Despite delivering what they considered a “flawless, gold-medal performance,” they were controversially bested by a French duo.
The pair of Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron claimed the gold, but notable inconsistencies were observed between the scores from eight judges and those from French judge Jezabel Dabouis.
Jezabel Dabouis is now facing intense scrutiny. US-based SB Nation reports a “consistent pattern” of Dabouis inflating scores for Beaudry and Cizeron, while assigning lower scores to their competitors.
According to SkatingScores.com, which archives past competitions, Dabouis has repeatedly issued scores that deviate significantly from those of her fellow judges in favor of the French pair.
During the 2026 European Championships, Dabouis notably awarded the French team a significantly higher score in the free skate segment than her peers, while simultaneously giving lower scores to their closest rivals, based on panel averages.
Jezabel Dabouis, the French judge on the panel for the Winter Olympics competition (right), gave the French gold medal winners higher scores than her fellow judges
Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron would not have won gold but for the large discrepancy in the scoring of one of the judges, it has been claimed
Scoring from the European Championships shows Dabouis gave the French pair higher marks than the average from fellow judges once again
Last year, at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Japan, Beaudry and Cizeron missed one element of their routine and also had a fall which would usually keep them well away from the podium places. Again, Daubois rewarded them with a superb score.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron only teamed up in March last year and over the past 12 months, Dabouis has judged in six of their competitions. The French pair have won five of the events.
Chock and Bates have since been asked by CBS news about the dubious judging after plenty of fans online claimed it was ‘rigged’ against them.
Chock said: ‘It would definitely be helpful if it’s more understandable for the viewers, to just see more transparent judging and understand… what’s really going on.
‘I think it’s also important for the skaters, that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are also putting out their best performance.
‘There’s a lot on the line for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges also giving us their all and for it to be a fair and even playing field.’
The difference between Dabouis’s scores for the USA and France was nearly eight points – significantly more than anyone else awarded – and in another cruel twist, five of the nine judges gave Chock and Bates the highest score in the free dance, compared to four who ranked France No 1.
Similar issues emerged in the rhythm dance section of the competition, where Dabouis gave France the highest score by far (93.34). That is nearly six points higher than she scored for the US, 87.6, which was the second lowest of any judge.
Team USA were dramatically denied Olympic gold by France’s Beaudry and Cizeron in the figure skating
‘The[re] must be an investigation!’ one user fumed on social media.
‘This is a judging scandal,’ another said. ‘There aren’t many times in sports where several times over it seems to be rigged… Chock and Bates (and others) got robbed.’
There was a huge outcry among both viewers and fellow competitors, with American figure skater Ellie Kam describing her compatriots as ‘true champions’, on Instagram.
The backlash has been so severe that the The International Skating Union have responded with an official statement.
‘It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,’ they said.
‘The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.’
Chock and Bates managed to be magnanimous in the wake of their disappointment.
‘I feel like life is sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way, and that’s life and that’s sport,’ Bates said. “And it’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport.’
Chock added: ‘It’s definitely a little bittersweet because we are so, so happy with how we performed this week. We really gave it our all, and I wouldn’t change anything about how we approached each performance, what we delivered in each performance. We really gave it our best.’
Meanwhile, the gold medal-winning pair have been dogged by ‘toxic’ allegations about their pasts.
Fournier Beaudry has faced intense scrutiny over her relationship with boyfriend and former skating partner, Nikolaj Sorensen, who was suspended in 2024 following allegations of a 2012 sexual assault involving a former skater and coach.
Beaudry and Cizeron entered the competition already under a cloud of controversy
He denied the accusations and, though his six-year suspension from Skate Canada was eventually overturned on a technicality, the scandal effectively ended his competitive career. Fournier Beaudry recently lamented the situation in the Netflix docuseries ‘Glitter & Gold’, claiming the ordeal ruined her partner’s life.
Meanwhile, Cizeron arrived in Milan facing explosive claims from his former gold-medal-winning partner, Gabriella Papadakis.
In an interview ahead of her memoir ‘So as Not to Disappear’, Papadakis described Cizeron as ‘controlling, demanding and critical.’ She wrote that she felt under his ‘control’ and was ‘terrified’ of being alone with him during their time as a world-leading pair.
Cizeron has hit back at the claims, labeling them a ‘smear campaign’ and confirming he is pursuing legal action. ‘I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to me,’ he told Reuters. ‘The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious.’
