Gay ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron and his skating partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry are being praised for their Madonna-inspired performance at the Olympics, but they are also making headlines for a controversy that has been haunting them for the past year.
It is the reasons their previous partnerships ended that had the duo under a microscope. Between allegedly controlling behavior and sexual assault allegations, Cizeron and Beaudry didn’t get out of their previous partnerships unscathed.
They may be competing at the Milano Cortina Winter Games now, but just a year ago, Cizeron and Beaudry weren’t even skating together. They announced their newly minted partnership in a March 2024 Instagram post, which sent a shockwave through the professional skating community because they were both still dealing with the fallout from their former partnerships.
"We started a new chapter a year ago," Cizeron told Reuters about going to the Olympics with Beaudry. "Neither of us would have thought we'd be here today, so everything is like a bonus for us."
Despite being mired in controversy, Cizeron and Beaudry are already making a name for themselves at the Olympics, where they are neck and neck with American husband and wife team Evan Bates and Madison Chock.
But what is the drama the ice dancing world can’t stop talking about? Here is everything you need to know about Cizeron and Beaudry and the controversy swirling around them.
Who is Guillaume Cizeron?
Cizeron is an out gay French ice dancer who is at the Milano Cortina Games to defend his Olympic title. Cizeron took home a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with his longtime partner, Gabriella Papadakis, with whom he also won five world titles. Cizeron and Papadakis had been competing together since they were children before ending their partnership in 2024. After they parted ways, Papadakis released a scathing memoir accusing Cizeron of “controlling” behavior that prompted him to threaten legal action.
Who is Laurence Fournier Beaudry?
Before joining forces with Cizeron in the lead-up to the 2026 Olympics, Beaudry competed for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Games with former partner and boyfriend Nikolaj Sorensen, with whom she had skated for 13 years.
After Sorensen was temporarily suspended after sexual assault allegations came to light, Beaudry was in the market for a new ice dancing partner, which is where Cizeron came in. Beaudry had her French citizenship expedited last year so she would be ready to compete for Team France at the Milano Cortina Olympics alongside Cizeron.
The sexual assault allegations explained
Beaudry had to quickly find a new ice dancing partner after allegations came to light that Sorensen sexually assaulted an American figure skating coach and former skater in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2012.
Sorensen was suspended for six years in 2024, but he denied the allegations, and the suspension was later overturned by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.
In an episode of the Netflix docuseries Glitter & Gold, Beaudry spoke out about the allegations against her boyfriend and former partner, explaining that she felt like “collateral damage.”
"When they decided to suspend him, it meant that his career was over, which also meant that my career was over,” she said. “This was extremely difficult because it was not only about skating, it was about my integrity, it was about his integrity. I know my boyfriend 100 percent. I know him. And we [stood] strong together."
After the docuseries came out, Sorensen's alleged victim also spoke out on social media. "The comments by the French team in the press and on a Netflix documentary create a dangerous environment for skaters who need to report abuse," the statement read. "The comments of the reigning Olympic champion and a team in contention for the upcoming Olympic title carry weight, and using their voices to publicly undermine a survivor's truths further enforces the culture of silence in figure skating."
What did Guillaume Cizeron’s former partner say about him?
Less than a month before the start of the Winter Games, Cizeron’s former partner Gabriella Papadakis released a memoir titled So as Not to Disappear, where she accused Cizeron of being “controlling," “demanding,” and “critical,” all allegations that he has refuted.
Cizeron responded to Papadakis’s claim that she felt like she was “under his grip” by calling it a “smear campaign” and has threatened legal action.
“In the face of this smear campaign, I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to me,” he said to French media. “The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious. For more than 20 years, I have shown deep respect for Gabriella Papadakis, despite the gradual erosion of our bond, our relationship was built on equal collaboration and marked by success and mutual support.”
What did Adam Rippon say about the controversy?
Gay retired figure skater Adam Rippon said there was "some sinister energy around the partnership" when he addressed the controversy surrounding Cizeron and Beaudry’s partnership in Glitter & Gold.
"Laurence's boyfriend, ex-partner, is banned from the sport, and Guillaume's former partner is saying that she didn't leave on her own terms," he said. "So I don't know if it's necessarily a story a lot of people are gonna root for at first.”
Cizeron responded to being painted as the villain in the docuseries by telling Reuters that he and Beaudry are focused on “having a lot of fun on the ice.”
He continued, ”We love skating, and we love skating together, and this is what we're focusing on.”
