Canada’s Gilles, Poirier in third after rhythm dance at Milan Cortina Games

MILAN – Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier will glide onto the gleaming white ice of Milano Ice Skating Arena for what may be the final skate of their careers on Wednesday.

The chance to seal their long, winding journey with an Olympic medal is in their grasp.

The decorated Canadian ice dancers are achingly close to their goal following Monday’s commanding rhythm dance performance at the Milan Cortina Games, clinging to third place with a narrow lead of 0.71 points.

“We know if we want to be at the podium, we have to deliver two performances that are Olympic-podium worthy,” Poirier said. “Today we were able to do it, we felt so confident and strong.

“And we want to do the same thing on Wednesday for the free dance.”

As a smattering of Canadian flags emerged from the lively crowd, Toronto’s Gilles and Poirier, of Unionville, Ont. scored a season’s best 86.18 points to “Supermodel (You Better Work)” by RuPaul, leading Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain.

It was a reverse order of the team event rhythm dance placements Friday, when Fear and Gibson, who’ve threatened to upset a dream-like ending for the Canadians this season, finished 1.06 points ahead of Gilles and Poirier.

Those judging marks, in a subjective ice-dance discipline where scores tend not to vary drastically from event to event, could have suggested the writing was on the wall for the two-time reigning world silver medallists.

Instead, Poirier described it as the wake-up call they needed.

“We came into this event not satisfied with our performance a few days ago, and that really allowed us to sharpen our focus,” said Poirier, all smiles through the hallways underneath the arena. “We went in feeling motivated and hungry.”

But Poirier acknowledged that with the competition so tight, there’s no room for letting up.

“Just speaks to how deep the field is, and I think we all know it’s going to be very tough to be on the Olympic podium,” he said. “That makes it exciting for the audience, and it forces all of us competitors to be at our best each time we come out and skate.”

Standing in first, former Canadian skater Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France wowed the crowd to “Vogue” by Madonna, earning a season’s best 90.18.

The French team arrived at the Olympics under intense scrutiny as a controversial pairing. Fournier Beaudry teamed with Cizeron last March after her boyfriend and former skating partner Nikolaj Sørensen was suspended six years following a sexual assault allegation that came to light in 2024 – a sanction later overturned on jurisdictional grounds and still under appeal.

Cizeron, meanwhile, recently accused former partner Gabriella Papadakis – with whom he won 2022 Olympic gold – of mounting a “smear campaign” in her memoir “So as Not to Disappear,” in which she described him as controlling and manipulative.

“We’re really creating a bubble between the two of us and our coaches,” said Fournier Beaudry, a 32-year-old from Montreal. “When we’re out there, it’s about the moments we spend together.”

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States trailed just behind the French with 89.72, leaving the three-time reigning world champions with an uphill climb heading into Wednesday’s free dance.

“The game is always on,” Chock said, exuding confidence with a bright smile. “We got this locked in, we know ourselves, we know our routine. Yeah, we got this.”

Gilles and Poirier also entered the season with gold-medal ambitions after posing the biggest threat to Chock and Bates in recent years, even co-starring alongside the French and American teams in Netflix’s “Glitter and Gold: Ice Dancing” docuseries released Feb. 1.

Their scores, however, have fallen short of their personal bests. Recently, judges have favoured the energetic Fear and Gibson despite the Canadians’ superior skating skills, leaving Gilles along with many skating fans and pundits puzzled.

On Monday night, it was a different story.

“We were like, you know what? This is our moment. We really need to capture it,” Gilles said. “Don’t let the nerves outshine us.”

Gilles and Poirier thought the 2022 Olympics might have been their last, but returned one year at a time through the next quadrennial.

The pair of 34-year-olds – skating in their 15th season and third Winter Games together – represent Canada’s greatest hope for a figure skating medal at the Games.

But even with all the pressure to deliver for themselves and Canada, Gilles said being in this position is “a blessing.”

“We didn’t even know that this opportunity was going to come three years ago, and we didn’t even know we were going to the Olympics a couple years ago,” she said. “We just did it year by year because we still continue to love skating.

“We still feel like there’s more for us to accomplish and celebrate.”

Maybe as soon as Wednesday night.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2026.