It’s not supposed to happen this way in ice dance, having two skaters who teamed up less than a year ago leading the Olympics after the rhythm dance.

After all, the last three Olympic champions all had skated together seemingly forever, beginning when they were children: 18 years for 2022 gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France; 21 years for 2018 winners Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada; 17 years for 2014 winners Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States.

"Longevity is incredibly important because of how complex both the training relationship and competitive relationship is, especially in ice dance, since the elements are so nuanced, and there’s so much relying on the performance and emotional chemistry," Ben Agosto, 2006 Olympic silver medalist with Tanith (Belbin) White, told me when Papadakis and Cizeron won.

And yet here we are, with Cizeron and his new partner, freshly minted French citizen Laurence Fournier Beaudry, beating three-time reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States by two whiskers in Monday’s opening phase of the 2026 ice dance event. It concludes with the free dance Wednesday.

The speed at which Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry have reached this level of success may have few precedents in the discipline, but, when asked about it last month, Chock said it didn’t amaze her. She has come to know both of them in their several years training under the same coaching staff.

“I mean, you can never predict what's going to happen in sport, but it honestly doesn't surprise me at all, because Laurence is one of the hardest workers that I've ever seen,” Chock said.  “She's an incredible athlete and a wonderful person, and Guillaume is also an incredible worker and so talented.”

And maybe the old parameters about ice dance are changing. Emilia Zingas had been a singles skater until trying ice dance with Vadim Kolesnik four years ago, and the U.S. couple finished a strong sixth in the rhythm dance, less than three points from third.

“I've never been so peaceful with myself as at this competition, and I don't know even how to explain this,” Kolesnik said. “I know it's (the) Olympic stage, and for many people, this is the moment of their lives. I just thought of it as a test run for our next eight years, because this is just the beginning for us.”

This is presumably the end of the competitive line for Chock, 33, and Bates, 36, a married couple in their fourth Olympics together. They have won two team event gold medals. The one thing missing from their stuffed resume is an individual Olympic medal.

“The goal is to win a gold medal,” Chock said.

The point difference between Chock-Bates and Fournier Beaudry-Cizeron came when a technical panel review lowered the level of one of the U.S. team’s elements, the pattern dance, from four to three (why, we probably will never know.)

“Our coaches will figure that out, but we’re really happy with our performance,” Chock said.

The revision, allowed as part of the sport’s review system, cost them .75 base value points for the element, one of five in the rhythm dance. They wound up .46 behind, with a score of 89.72 to 90.18 for the French, who got level four on that element.

“It doesn’t change anything for us,” Chock said of being second going into the free dance. “We know ourselves, we know our routine, and we got this.”

Chock and Bates had beaten Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron by 1.08 in the rhythm dance during the team event. While the U.S. dancers went on to win the free dance and the team event gold, the French were resting, since their team did not qualify for the final round.

Cizeron, 31, began his partnership with Fournier Beaudry, 33, after he and Papadakis announced their competitive retirement in December 2024.

“We had really great chemistry from the beginning,” Cizeron said of skating with Fournier Beaudry, with whom he had been friends for a decade.

Fournier Beaudry’s previous skating partnership representing Canada with Nikolaj Sorensen, also her boyfriend, ended after Sorensen was banned six years by Skate Canada in 2024 for an alleged sexual assault of a U.S. skater in 2012.  Sorensen has denied the allegations. The ban has since been overturned, but that action has been appealed.

She received French citizenship in November. By then, after a couple competitions together, they had already shown the ability to contend for Olympic gold.

Chock and Bates defeated them convincingly in December’s Grand Prix Final, but the U.S. couple knew the task could be harder at the Olympics.

“When you have a strong foundation of friendship, of work ethics and talent, the possibilities are endless,” Chock said of their rivals.

 Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at 13 straight Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com