Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete at the Internationaux de France on Nov. 1, 2019 in Grenoble, France.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates hadn’t competed on the Grand Prix circuit in two years prior to this weekend’s Internationaux de France, but their return has been a success.
On Saturday, the two-time Olympic ice dancers scored a silver medal in their first Grand Prix competition since finishing fifth in the Final in 2017.
Skating to free dance music that was part snake charmer and part upbeat belly dance, the two held on to the position they had following Friday’s rhythm dance, set to music by Cole Porter. Their free dance scored a 124.15, a new season’s best and second only to four-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France.
Papadakis and Cizeron finished with an overall score of 222.24 while Chock and Bates, combined with the 80.69 points scored in the rhythm dance, totaled 204.84 points. Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy were third with 203.34 points, making it a close contest between the silver and bronze medal positions.
At this time last year Chock was still recovering from ankle surgery performed in April 2018. The two didn’t return to competition until January of this year but went on to win the Four Continents Trophy in February for their first international title and placed sixth at the world championships. They took the gold medal back in September at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City and another gold medal in October in the Finlandia Trophy.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic & Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
