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Madison Chock and Evan Bates repeated as ice dance world champions to complete their first undefeated season in their 13th year together.
Shock, 31, and Bates, 35, scored 222.20 points between Friday’s rhythm dance and Saturday’s free dance in Montreal, their training base since 2018.
They won by 2.52 points over last year’s bronze medalists Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. It was the world’s smallest ice dance victory in a decade.
Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri won bronze a year after taking silver.
Figure Skating Worlds: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Chock and Bates’ five career world championship medals are a US ice dance record.
Last year, they won their first world championship – after three previous silver or bronze medals – and became the oldest couple to win gold.
After the Stars on Ice tour last spring, they decided to continue competing for at least one more season.
This turned out to be their best yet. Chock and Bates won all five of their races, including their fifth U.S. title.
They entered this week with the best points total in the world this season, 2.6 points ahead of Gilles and Poirier. This made them the clear favorites of the worlds, but not the big ones.
They won the rhythm dance with the highest score in the world this season. Gilles and Poirier led them by 1.05 points in the free dance, but it wasn’t enough to make up their deficit from Friday.
Chock and Bates plan to marry in June. They have not announced that they will compete next season.
“We’ve got a lot to celebrate and a lot to evaluate before we go into another season because it certainly takes a lot of work and a lot of heart and a lot of things,” Chock said. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We’ll reassess and see how we feel at the end of the season and after our wedding.”
If they continue, they could make a bid next January to tie the record of six U.S. ice dance titles held by their former training partners, retired Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
They are now tied with Davis and White on two world titles.
Although at least one U.S. pair has won a medal at 17 of the last 19 worlds, no other U.S. ice dancer has been a world champion.
The run began with Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto winning silver at the 2005 World Championships, the first of four medals. That year, 12-year-old Chok started ice dancing after watching Belbin and Agosto.
“Of course they inspired us – Tanith and Ben, followed by Meryl and Charlie,” Bates said. “When we coached at Michigan, they were our role models and idols. Sometimes we would share ice with them. I remember being in awe of them. “Being a teenager and sharing the ice with your idols is the most motivating thing you can imagine.”
The worlds will conclude on Saturday with the men’s free skate beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. the peacock and 8 p.m. on NBC, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
If Ilia Malin jumps off the third step to win, it will be the first year the United States has won multiple golds since 1996 (Michelle Kwan, Todd Eldredge).
