Judging Bombshell Shakes Olympic Ice Dance

One judge’s outlier score can flip an Olympic podium, and that’s exactly why this ice dance silver medal won’t stop rattling the sport.

Quick Take

U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished second in Milan Cortina, but controversy centered on one judge’s unusually large scoring gap.
French judge Jezabel Dabouis scored the French team far higher than the Americans in the free dance, and critics say the margin was decisive.
A Change.org petition calling for ISU and IOC action quickly gathered more than 14,000 signatures.
The ISU defended the panel by pointing to normal scoring ranges and safeguards designed to limit judge-to-judge variation.
The dispute revived memories of the 2002 Salt Lake City scandal and renewed calls for transparency and accountability.

The Milan Cortina result that won’t settle down

Milan Cortina’s ice dance ended with Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates holding silver behind France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, and the argument started immediately. The flashpoint was not a fall, a missed lift, or a rules technicality. It was a scoring spread: French judge Jezabel Dabouis reportedly boosted the French pair by nearly eight points in the free dance, a gap so large that critics say removing her score changes gold.

Fans don’t need to understand every edge call to feel when something smells off. When one judge lands miles away from the rest of the panel, it doesn’t read like “artistic difference.” It reads like power. That perception matters because ice dance sells trust: people invest in the idea that excellence wins. When the scoreboard looks like a locked room mystery, the sport invites the public to treat it like one.

Why an eight-point swing lands like an alarm bell

Modern figure skating uses a points system with two main buckets: technical scoring for elements and deductions, and program components for skating skill, performance, and interpretation. That structure was supposed to reduce backroom dealing after earlier eras, yet it still gives judges wide latitude in components. A near eight-point difference from one judge in a discipline where podium gaps often sit within a couple points can feel less like nuance and more like leverage over the final order.

The complaint got sharper because the disputed judge’s pattern wasn’t limited to one night. Reports tie Dabouis’s generous scoring for the French team to earlier head-to-head moments, including the Grand Prix Final in December 2025 and scoring in the Olympic rhythm dance. Pattern evidence doesn’t prove misconduct by itself, but it does raise the most practical question fans ask: if the same judge keeps producing the same beneficiary, why should the audience assume randomness?

The petition wave and what it signals about legitimacy

Public outrage turned into paperwork fast. A Change.org petition calling for an investigation by the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee surpassed 14,000 signatures within days. Petitions don’t change medals by magic, but they do measure legitimacy in real time. When thousands of people demand review, they are effectively saying the sport’s internal assurances don’t persuade them, and the governing bodies have lost the benefit of the doubt.

Olympic athletes from other judged sports added fuel because they understand how it feels to lose behind a curtain. Gymnast MyKayla Skinner said she was “sick of athletes not getting what they worked so hard for and judges cheating.” Former U.S. champion gymnast Jennifer Sey pushed for tougher judge vetting, more transparency in how scores get built, and meaningful penalties. Skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender called the Americans worthy of the top step. Their comments carry weight because they’re not casual fans; they’re veterans of subjective scoring systems.

The ISU defense, and the credibility gap it doesn’t close

The ISU defended the scoring by arguing that a range of marks is normal and that mechanisms exist to mitigate variations across a panel, adding that it held “full confidence” in the scores and remained committed to fairness. That statement fits the standard institutional playbook: emphasize process, cite safeguards, move on. The problem is that “range” has a breaking point. Common sense says safeguards should dampen extreme outliers, not ask fans to accept them as ordinary.

Chock and Bates spoke like elite competitors who know how rare an Olympic moment is. Bates described their skate as their absolute best and said it felt like a winning performance to them. Chock emphasized something more important than one medal: the sport must stay understandable and credible for fans. That’s the line administrators should underline, too, because confusion isn’t a PR issue; it’s an existential one. If people can’t follow the “why,” they stop paying attention, and sponsors eventually follow.

Why 2002 still haunts skating, and what reform could look like

Skating officials can’t act surprised that this controversy triggered 2002 flashbacks. The Salt Lake City pairs scandal involved a French judge accused of vote-swapping, leading to a suspension and pushing the sport away from the old 6.0 system in 2004. Reform fixed some problems but didn’t remove the core vulnerability: human beings can still steer outcomes through components and generous grading. A conservative approach to governance says institutions earn trust through transparency, not through demands for deference.

Petition to Give U.S. Skaters Gold Medal Gathers Signatures Amid Judging Scandalhttps://t.co/62BQFmlBIJ

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) February 13, 2026

Real fixes don’t need theatrics. Publish clearer explanations of how component scores are derived, tighten acceptable variance thresholds, and trigger automatic review when one judge’s marks diverge beyond a set margin—especially when the divergence aligns with nationality or repeated history. Vet judges for conflicts and patterns, and apply penalties that actually deter. If the ISU wants fans to treat outliers as normal, it should show the math and the oversight, not just issue statements.