The New Netflix Documentary About Olympic Ice Dancers Spills Some Fascinating Tea
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To catch you up: Gold went to the Team France pair of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, despite Team USA — Madison Chock and Evan Bates — having long been the favorites to win, and many arguing that the pair performed near perfection. They ended up with the silver medal, while Team Canada, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, won bronze.
Amazing achievements all round, of course — but there’s a whole “soap opera,” as former Olympian Scott Moir puts it, behind this particular podium — and it’s covered in Netflix’s three-part documentary Glitter and Gold: Ice Dancing, which follows the three teams in the year leading up to the 2026 Olympics. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should, but in the interim, here are the highlights…
1.
So Madison Chock and Evan Bates are basically America’s Sweethearts of ice dancing — they’ve been skating together for 14 years, during which time they’ve won multiple National Championships, World Championships, and gone to several Olympics — oh, and they also fell in love.
In Glitter and Gold, Evan says they’d been skating together for about five years when he realized he’d fallen in love with Madison, but he was afraid to tell her and risk the partnership. When he finally confessed, Madison was surprised but then realized she had feelings for him too. They got married in 2024.
2.
They’re a power couple, whose signature style, according to former Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, is, “Look at how gorgeous Madison is — and Evan is also there.” Adam adds that this dynamic works for them and is actually one of their strengths.
3.
In Glitter and Gold, Madison says that, with both her and Evan now in their mid-30s, this would likely be their last competitive season — including their last Olympics. Although the pair had won gold in team events at previous Olympics, they hadn’t won in their individual events, losing points after a fall in the 2018 games and coming in juuuuuust off the podium in fourth place in the 2022 games. Of course, they’d won just about every other competition in the meantime.
4.
All of this meant that there was huge pressure and expectations for Madison and Evan going into the Milano Cortina Olympics — but the gold was considered theirs for the taking by many.
5.
The other top contenders at the start of Glitter and Gold are Team Canada, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who, like Madison and Evan, have been skating together for a long time — since 2011.
6.
The experts in the documentary describe Piper and Paul’s style as quirky and unique, pushing the boundaries creatively in a way that is exciting but can sometimes be off-putting — Scott Moir says he’s sometimes “loving it” watching them and other times feels “left out of the joke.”
7.
In the series, Paul and Piper open up about some of the challenges each of them has faced over the years, including Paul coming out as gay, and Piper’s mom being diagnosed with brain cancer in the lead up to the 2018 Olympics and sadly passing away not long after.
8.
Piper herself was diagnosed with stage 1 ovarian cancer in 2022 and had surgery to remove an ovary. She said it took her two and a half years to feel like herself again, and even then, she still didn’t feel able to perform at the “100%” level she had before.
9.
Even still, Piper and Paul are medal-winning skaters who had previously beaten Madison and Evan at the ice dance Grand Prix Final in 2022, so everyone was looking to them as the ones who had the best chance at edging out Team USA at Milano Cortina 2026.
10.
That is….until we meet Team France, Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry — an unexpected pairing that rocked the skating world. They’d only just started skating together, and a brand new partnership going to the Olympics had “never been done, never been seen before,” according to Adam Rippon.
11.
But it wasn’t just the newness of the team that was raising eyebrows — as Adam puts it, “There is some sinister energy around the partnership.”
12.
Guillaume Cizeron had previously been partnered with Gabriella Papadakis, and the two of them had skated together for 18 years, winning many championships together, including gold at the 2022 Olympics. Everyone thought they had retired in 2024, but according to Adam Rippon, Gabriella claims she “didn’t leave on her own terms.”
13.
Within months of “retiring” from his partnership with Gabriella, Guillaume had paired with “best friend” Laurence Fournier Beaudry, who he’d known for 10 years thanks to them having the same coaches (more on that in a sec). “I missed competing and the adrenaline rush,” Guillaume says on returning with Laurence.
14.
Laurence herself was without a partner because her boyfriend and former skating partner Nikolaj Soerensen had been given a ban on competitive skating for “sexual maltreatment” after a former skater accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2012. Laurence and Nikolaj had been skating together since 2012, dating since 2013, and represented Canada in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Sørensen has denied the allegation.
15.
In Glitter and Gold, Laurence indirectly addresses the allegations against Nikolaj, saying, “I know my boyfriend 100%. I know him. And we stand strong together. I never really public discussed about how much damage it’s created. It’s like I don’t even want to go back to what I felt in those moments because I thought I was so strong…I just felt like collateral damage.”
16.
Laurence says when Guillaume had the “crazy” idea for them to skate together, she was initially resistant, but agreed because it would “give me the opportunity to finish my career how I want it.” But it also meant that they had only 10 months to not just gel as a team, but be Olympics-ready — not to mention for the Canadian Laurence to get her French citizenship to be eligible to compete for France (“country-hopping” is a pretty common practice in competitive skating, according to Adam Rippon).
17.
While Laurence managed to get her citizenship mere months before the Olympics, she and Guillaume were very much the “dark horses” going into the season. Adding to the drama of it all was the fact that they trained at the same academy and had the same coaching team as Madison and Evan.
18.
Glitter and Gold follows all three teams as they perform in several competitions in the lead-up to the Olympics. The competitions are important not just in themselves but also crucial for their Olympic prep — affecting not only their ability to make their national team but also the actual routines they perform (not to mention their confidence levels).
19.
In both rehearsals and competitions, the teams have the chance to perform their Olympic routines and fine tune them with their coaches — and also receive direct feedback from the judges.
20.
Madison and Evan decided to perform a matador-inspired routine for their rhythm dance, with Madison designing their costumes, as she always does (the pair is known for their impeccable styling). The dramatic skirt Madison wore in one of the early competitions of the season became a point of contention, however, with commentator Mark Hanretty saying, “she’s the victim of her own brilliance when it comes to costume-making.”
21.
Madison compromised and begrudgingly agreed to a slightly shorter and less voluminous skirt, but even then, it would sometimes get in the way of Evan’s face — and his skates. Mark Hanretty says that it was “making everyone nervous.” And it wasn’t the only challenge the pair faced — Evan was experiencing debilitating back pain after they tweaked their music and added new lifts to the routine. The pair actually took a break after Skate America in November 2025.
22.
Piper and Paul, meanwhile, talk about how in the lead-up to the 2022 Olympics, they took a lot of judge feedback and wound up trying to please everyone so much that they lost their grasp on their routine. So, this time, they’re “sticking to our vision.”
23.
Piper and Paul decided to revisit their most iconic routine, “Vincent,” inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, which they first performed in 2018. Paul talks about how it’s a “risk” because they could look like they’re not moving forward, but it was meaningful to both of them, as they’d choreographed it when Piper’s mother was dying, with Piper saying the routine reconnects her with her mom, and that performing it is an emotional and powerful experience. They did renew the routine, including incorporating some judge feedback, during their 2025 competitions.
24.
As for Laurence and Guillaume, they faced some setbacks during their Olympic prep — including learning that their chosen Depeche Mode song for their rhythm routine was “illegal” because it was released in 1989, and this season’s theme for that section was “1990s.” They switched to Madonna’s “Vogue,” and despite some uneven moments, they started winning competitions.
25.
Although they achieved gold in the Grand Prix in Finland in November 2025, and Piper and Paul won silver, both teams complained of harsh judging for the rhythm dance, with Guillaume saying it was “fucking sabotage” and Piper saying it was “so unfair.”
26.
It’s interesting context, given that Guillaume and Laurence winning gold over Madison and Evan at Milano Cortina 2026 caused a lot of controversy and had many questioning the integrity of the judging.
27.
In the end, all three teams delivered amazing performances (with no significant skirt issues in sight). Of course, I have some OPINIONS on the final results after binging the Netflix docuseries, but regardless of what happens next, I will be seated for the ice-tea (preferably with commentary from Adam Rippon, please).
You can stream Glitter and Gold: Ice Dancing on Netflix.
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