How Madison Chock and Evan Bates Gave Their All for Olympic Gold—Even Quitting U.S. To Move to Canada in Pursuit of Glory

Married figure skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates suffered brutal defeat in the ice dance finals at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, when they were beaten to the gold by French pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.

Despite claiming the silver in the event, it was a crushing result for Chock, 33, and Bates, 36, who have been skating together for more than 15 years, a partnership that eventually blossomed into real-life romance and saw them tying the knot in 2024.

Perhaps even more heartbreaking was the fact that they had skated a near-perfect routine, bested by the French competitors by just over one point.

This Winter Games marked Chock and Bates' fourth Olympics together—and, some believe, could well be their last, having spent the last 11 years of their lives dedicating everything to the sport, even picking up and moving away from their hometown in Michigan to relocate to Canada to be closer to their coaches.

They still walk away with a gold—in the team event—and their silver medal in the pairs' final, although it remains to be seen whether they will be hanging those trophies up in Montreal, or Michigan, should they choose to take a break from their rigorous training schedule.

The couple has previously spoken about the toll of living so far away from their relatives, telling
Architectural Digest ahead of the Olympics. "It was hard to leave our families after being so close to them for our entire lives, so it really felt like we were on our own doing the adulting thing," Chock said.

For the last seven years, the couple has been residing in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom rental property in the Canadian city, revealing to the publication that they are still finding their footing as far as living together as a married couple is concerned.

Having tied the knot in Hawaii nearly two years ago, they confessed that the vision for their dream marital abode is still in the works—perhaps because they've had slightly loftier goals on their minds.

"Our style continues to evolve, and as we work more towards building a home of our own and setting down roots, we’ve started to collect pieces that we think we’ll keep with us for a long period of time," Chock shared.

Despite being busy trying to secure a gold, the husband and wife duo are aiming to put their own spin on their rental property, which they share with their poodles, Stella and Henry.

Bates brought in a vintage Shinola record player that he inherited from his grandfather and the couple has since made it a tradition to buy the vinyl of the music they are skating to each year.

"So we've got a good collection," Bates revealed.

When they aren't spiraling on the rink, the couple will be "dancing around our kitchen."

"We’ll walk through stuff or flush out ideas," Chock added.

The couple has transformed one of their three bedrooms into an at-home gym with a treadmill, bike, and small locker that holds their equipment and accessories.

When they aren't on the ice, they are spending their time at their home, which they describe as their "sanctuary."

"Because we work so hard on the ice, we work so hard in the gym, [when] we come home, we’re pooped. We just want to chill. We’re homebodies," Bates said.

Although they are focusing on their rink routines at the moment, the couple confessed that they do hope to head back to the States in the future and build a home from the ground up.

"This is not our forever home, for sure, although we do love Montreal. It’s such a fun city, and we’re so happy and grateful to be living here at this time of our lives," Chock said.

"But I think we'll definitely move back to the States at some point, whether it be Michigan, Chicago, California—we haven’t really picked a spot—but we certainly love the Midwest."

For now, the couple will soak up the end of their Olympic run, which saw them finishing the ice dance final with a total score of 224.39, just behind Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who ended the second day of competition with a total of 225.82.

Chock and Bates were on the back foot heading into the second day of competition, when they were awarded what they believed to have been a lower-than-deserved score of 89.72.

Although the husband and wife duo, who entered the Olympics as a fan favorite, scored lower than expected, they insisted that they were proud of what they left out on the rink.

"We were really happy with how we skated tonight," Chock said in a post-event interview with NBC.

Bates emphasized that they did not believe the surprisingly low score was warranted, noting that he thought he and his wife skated "even better" than they had at their team event, at which they scored a 91.06.

“I think the emotion at the end of the program, the hug, the smiles, the bows—that is for me, the greatest memory of the Olympic Games. It's the feeling of accomplishment, knowing you did your best on the ice, and the rest isn't necessarily up to us," Bates added.