By Hiro Yoshida

For the past decade, Montreal has become the capital of ice dance and this week the city plays host to the World Championships. Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA) are back to defend the title they won last year in Saitama, Japan and close out their season on a high.

The victory at 2023 Worlds had been a long time in the making. Chock and Bates teamed up 2011 and they finally won gold at their tenth appearance at Worlds.

“The feelings we had were just gratitude and joy for all the many years that we’ve worked to accomplish this goal that made it that much sweeter when we did finally accomplish it,” Chock said.

“You never know if you’ll reach that ultimate goal,” Bates said. “That was our ultimate goal for the last eight, maybe nine years and so we just kept going for it year after year. When it finally happened, it was incredible. It was amazing for it to happen in Japan, which is our favourite country to skate in. We’ve been fortunate to skate there many times over the years and just have built a connection with the fans there. It was just a really surreal experience.”

The 2022-2023 season had gotten off to a bumpy start with losses at NHK Trophy and the Grand Prix Final.

“It was definitely a very trying season,” Chock said. “We went through many trials and tribulations, which in the end made it that much more gratifying to achieve that after really gutting it out through the season and working and just believing in ourselves and believing in our programmes. We knew that they were special to us and maybe it wasn’t clear at the beginning of the season to everyone. It wasn’t quite the right track at the very start. We had to work hard to find what we felt it could be and we did eventually get to that. It was really special to feel that and to be committed to our belief and our belief in ourselves to achieve that goal.”

As they waited for their scores in the Kiss and Cry after the free dance in Saitama, the Americans knew they had given it their all.

“There was no more work to be done,” Chock said. “We had done everything that we could. Just the feeling of knowing that we did that, and we had done everything in our power to make that happen was satisfying on its own. But then to have it result in a world championship win was incredible.”

“I think it’s the biggest arena we’ve ever skated in,” Bates said. “Especially in the rhythm dance, I remember as soon as the beat came in and they started clapping, you could literally feel the pulsations of the audience. It just gave us so much energy to skate through the programme with joy and vigour. That kind of atmosphere is really special at World Championships because it almost felt like a party everybody was joining in with us. It’s because of the passion that many of the fans in Japan have for figure skating. It’s one of the most unique atmospheres that we’ve ever skated.”

“There were so many emotions, lots of pride and joy and just being really present and reflecting on what it took for us to get there,” Chock said about standing on the top of the podium. “Just savouring that moment with Evan and the team was really lovely.”

Chock and Bates eased themselves into this season after a busy spring with shows and World Team Trophy following their victory at Worlds. During the summer, they were back in Japan for more shows. After a hectic year, they felt they needed to regroup. In between tours in Japan and North America, they did find time to create their programmes for this season.

“We took some time to just enjoy the life on tour with all of our friends,” Bates said. “Just take a breath after being so caught up and putting so much of ourselves into our skating. I think it was necessary for us to take that break, but our passion is still burning. This season we got ready. We definitely felt creatively inspired and invigorated and happy with the programmes that we’ve made for the season.”

“We came back to Montreal, and we decided on music and decided we wanted to continue forward,” Chock said. “Then from there, the choreography and the process started coming together quickly. One, out of necessity, and two, just because we wanted to get as much done and be as productive as we possibly could before going for our second tour in Japan in the summer. We learned a lot from that experience the previous season. We wanted to be as efficient as possible in that aspect.”

For their routines, they settled on Queen for their rhythm dance and Pink Floyd for the free dance.

“We listened to a lot of 80s music,” Chock said. “One day we were watching ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ together. We love the movie. We love Freddie Mercury. We love the story. We love Queen’s music. They have been so iconic for decades that it was fun and easy to sift through their music from the 80s and find some pieces that would work for our rhythm dance.”

“The theme of our free dance is we are exploring the concept of time and the nature of time, the way we interact with time and how so frequently as humans, we feel like time slips through our fingers,” Bates said. “Especially as we get older, it feels like time goes by faster and faster. The message that we want to send in this free dance is to be the master of your own time and not to let time be the master of you and to take the time to stop and appreciate the things that we have. We’re doing our best to really reflect this message in every piece of choreography and even in the costuming and the entire package. We tried to put as much thought and as much detail into the entire package that we put onto the ice.”

Chock and Bates have been based at the Ice Academy of Montreal since 2018 and credit the training environment for helping them find their niche artistically.

“I think it’s really something special that the Ice Academy of Montreal has,” Chock said. They really give you the freedom to be yourself and nurture you and your choices while of course offering suggestions and help. With each team, they help you select music that really fits you and helps you tell your own personal story of who you are as a person. That seeps into the product that you end up putting on the ice. Just going there was kind the renaissance of our careers. We really took ownership over the path that we wanted to take and the stories that we wanted to tell and what was important to us. They really let us do that and allowed us to flourish in a way that we didn’t even maybe realise was fully possible at the time. I remember this feeling inside me before we moved there that there was more. There was some level that I hadn’t unlocked yet, but I knew was possible. Then moving to Montreal, it was just like the gates open and it was a really special experience. I found a lot of inspiration and creativity and balance in my life that I hadn’t fully felt before.”

“I think also it’s a matter of longevity in any kind of creative endeavour,” Bates said. “I think the longer that you pursue it, the more rewarding it becomes. It takes a while to develop a unique voice. That’s what we’ve been able to do since moving to Montreal is find our identity as a team and our unique voice and we feel more inspired creatively now than we have ever.”

“The creative freedom that skating gives you is really something special, and something that’s so unique to our sport that very few other sports have,” Chock said. “I think that’s what keeps us coming back for more every year. It’s that freedom of creativity and uniqueness that each skater can bring to the ice.”

“Especially when we’re in that choreography phase of the season, we’re looking everywhere for inspiration and trying to not repeat ourselves and create new elements and new lifts and just bring freshness every year,” Bates said. “That’s sometimes the most challenging part when you’ve been at it for a long time is to reinvent yourself year after year. It’s always a goal of ours.”

“You never know when inspiration is going to strike,” Chock added. “Sometimes you can spend a few days mulling over an idea. Then you lay down to sleep and you have a bunch of ideas. You either need to hold on to them or write them down. It’s funny the way that works when you just let something marinate long enough, often the answer becomes clear.”

Something that has not become clear is when Chock and Bates will receive the medals they won as part of Team USA at the 2022 Beijing Olympics Figure Skating Team Event. On 29 January, the Court of Arbitration of Sport rendered its decision to ban Russian skater Kamila Valieva from the sport until December 2025. With her results disqualified, the International Skating Union elevated the USA to the gold medal position. However, appeals have been filed by interested parties and Chock and Bates are still not certain when or where they will receive their medals. They are the only members of the American who are competing this season.

“People move on to the next chapter of their lives and it kind of fades into the background sometimes, even though it was such a big moment for all of us in our lives and a goal that we had all worked towards for a very long time,” Chock said. “It was really special for us to have the US tour after the games with our Olympic team that really brought us all closer together and really helped to celebrate that moment of going through all of that for years together, just working and competing together and then winning a medal together. Even though we weren’t able to take that medal home with us, we still had the feeling and the bond between the team members that was really special.”

“Some kind of ceremony would be really great,” Bates said. “If it could happen at the Olympics, Summer or Winter, that would be amazing. I’m really looking forward to getting our whole team back together again and celebrating that moment and having that medal around our necks. I can’t wait for that to happen.”

Although they are still undecided, Chock and Bates are not ruling out the possibility of continuing two more years to the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics.

“It’s certainly in the back of our minds,” Chock said. “We said previously we’re taking it one year at a time, but at this point it’s not that far away. For now though, we’re just focused on this season and making programmes that are special to us and still inspiring to us. As long as that fire is still alive within us, I think it’s certainly possible. If we do end up going to the Games we will certainly be going for the gold.”

One big celebration that Chock and Bates are sure will happen is their wedding in June this year. The ceremony will take place in Hawaii. The couple have been preparing for their special day in between shows and competitions. Chock chose her dress in May 2023 during a visit to New York.

“We did a speech for the Partnership for Clean Competition,” Chock said. “Our agent helped me set up some appointments to try on wedding dresses. Laurence (Fournier Beaudry) came to New York with me too. My parents came, so we all went to try on dresses together. It was so fun. We had an amazing time. I found a very gorgeous dress at Vera Wang that I love. The connection is incredible. She’s so involved in skating. It’s almost destiny to pick one of her wedding dresses.”

This week Chock and Bates will attempt to become the first American ice dancers to win back-to-back World titles. After the cancellation of 2020 Worlds due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prospect of being able to make history in the city that has become their home gave Chock and Bates the motivation to continue competing until this season.

“When Montreal was supposed to host Worlds in 2020, we were very excited for that opportunity to perform in front of our second home audience,” Chock said. “Montreal has become a very special place to us and for it to be able to host Worlds with our whole IAM family and school was really exciting. There was a buzz and energy within our school. That’s around again this year. It’s really special to have that with our coaches and know how many amazing people are in Montreal that have been supporting us through this journey that will be able to attend.”

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Bates said. “We’re really looking forward to it.”