All French figure skater Guillaume Cizeron wants to do on Thursday is celebrate.
The night prior, he achieved a dream, winning back-to-back gold medals in the ice dance competition with two different partners. He won with Gabriella Papadakis at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, and then he did it in Milan, Italy, with a new confidant in Laurence Fournier Beaudry.
But instead of having virtual roses thrown at him on social media, Cizeron is getting hit with tomatoes.
After a night of drama, controversy, and cries of “rigging” from fans across the world, Cizeron still has the gold medal around his neck.
The French duo defeated Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates in a nail-biting finish, with the former barely beating out the Americans.
Afterwards, though, fans and pundits reviewed the judging and saw that the French evaluator had given the French ice dancers an eight-point advantage over the Americans.
To say there was outrage would be an understatement.
Almost 24 hours later, the firestorm has not calmed down, as any post Cizeron makes is being met with vitriol from anyone who isn’t typing in French.
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On one of his most recent Instagram reposts celebrating the win, a top comment took aim at the result.
“I’m not even American — I’m Brazilian — and even I could see how unfair this result was,” said Instagram user elisa_siliano. “[Madison] and Evan deserved the gold medal. It’s very disappointing to see judging that does not reflect what happened on the ice. They delivered a performance worthy of champions, and many fans around the world feel this decision was unjust. Figure skating deserves fairness and integrity.”
Another user, sharing her anger with more emojis than words, simply posted “BOOOO” with a series of tomatoes.
Cizeron attempted to post a photo on his Instagram story of himself with his gold-medal-winning partner, and the first comment that popped up was a line of throwing-up emojis.
While the French ice dancers’ victory won’t go away, neither will the online vitriol.
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