MILAN — One of the ice dance teams who stood on the podium Wednesday night has been a figure skating pair for 15 years, a couple for nine, and married for nearly two. Their chief rivals have been partners for less than a year, with one of the skaters competing for her fourth country internationally.

The United States’ Madison Chock and Evan Bates fell short of their first individual Olympic gold medal on Wednesday, losing in the figure skating ice dance event to the French team of Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry.

“We’re still in shock,” Cizeron told reporters after. “We had such a special time on the ice today, and looking back a year ago when we started dreaming of this, it’s pretty incredible what we’ve been through.”

The two pairs entered the night in a heated battle for the top spot. After the rhythm dance portion on Monday night, Chock and Bates trailed Beaudry and Cizeron by only 0.46 points.

Skating second-to-last among 20 pairs, Chock and Bates jumped into first with their free dance score of 134.67. Performing to an instrumental of the Rolling Stones’ famed “Paint it Black,” the duo finished to thunderous applause in Milan’s Assago Forum. In an emotional display, Bates slapped the ice and yelled before embracing Chock tightly as flowers were thrown into the rink.

“It was amazing, it felt so good,” Chock told NBC News of their emotions at the end of their free dance. “We’re so proud of what we accomplished this week. Every time we stepped on Olympic ice and had our four performances, we felt like we delivered the very best of ourselves. That is the most you can hope for when you’re competing: to deliver your best self every time you step on the ice. We did that.”

But Chock and Bates ultimately finished second, earning them a silver medal, their best showing in ice dance since their first Olympics in 2014. Previously, the duo had never finished higher than fourth.

Still, their season-best free dance routine wasn’t enough to topple the Beaudry and Cizeron.

Following an extended break, Cizeron announced his retirement from the sport in 2024. He returned soon after in March 2025, with Beaudry — who skated for Canada from 2018 to 2024 — as his new partner.

Beaudry became a free agent (so to speak) after her previous teammate and romantic partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, was suspended in 2024 for six years after accusations of sexually assaulting an American figure skating coach and former skater in 2012. The suspension was overturned in June.

Cizeron, meanwhile, was accused of being controlling and demanding by his previous teammate, Gabriella Papadakis. Cizeron has denied the characterization and accused Papadakis of a smear campaign.

Both Beaudry and Cizeron have also faced some criticism from the woman who accused Sørensen of sexual assault for supporting Sørensen.

Even before Wednesday, Chock and Bates had a familiarity with Beaudry and Cizeron, as both pairs were coached in the lead up to the Milan Cortina Olympics at the Ice Academy of Montreal. Chock told NBC News before the start of the games that she was “blindsided” by Cizeron’s return to competition.

“We really didn’t get much forewarning that they were coming back and teaming up,” Chock said, adding that normally her and Bates’ coaches give them a heads up when they take on a new team. “We didn’t know they were thinking about that, and then they told us I think the day before they came to officially start training, and it was a lot to digest at first.”

Ultimately, Wednesday came down to what happened on the ice, and Chock and Bates fell 1.43 points short of being the best, dashing their dreams of an Olympic gold for at least four years and perhaps forever.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” Chock said after. “We have so much to be proud of. We’ve had the most incredible career, 15 years on the ice together, first Olympics as a married couple and delivered four of our best performances this week.”

Added Bates, when asked if he took any issues with the scoring: “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. And it’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport. But I think one fact that is indisputable is that we delivered our best, we skated our best, we did season’s best almost every single time. And the rest is not up to us. But we felt like we were very close. We felt like we skated a winning performance, and that’s what we came here to do.”