With World Title, Chock and Bates Join U.S. Ice Dance Royalty

At the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Saitama, Japan, Madison Chock and Evan Bates finally stood atop a world podium.
 
Not on the bronze-medal step, as they did in 2016 and 2022.
 
Not on the silver-medal step, as they did in 2015.
 
They finally achieved their career-long goal of winning a global championship, and it truly felt like a culmination of all the blood, sweat and tears they've put into their careers.
 
"That's sort of the moment where it starts to sink in," Bates said of standing on the podium. "Hearing the national anthem is always a point of pride, and we have been on the world podium three times before that, but silver or bronze, never on the top spot. So it just felt amazing to stand up on top of the podium and reflect on all the years, over a decade of work that we put in at skating together, and beyond that, both of us skating for our entire lives."
 
Indeed, it's been quite a long and winding road for Chock and Bates, who teamed up in July of 2011. It took them a season to find their footing as a team, but they started podiuming consistently in the 2012-13 season and simply never stopped.
 
They've won 16 Grand Prix medals, 11 U.S. Championship medals (including four U.S. titles, in 2015, 2020, 2022 and 2023), seven Four Continents medals and, of course, the four World Championship medals. They have been on three Olympic teams – in 2014, 2018 and 2022 – and were part of the silver medal-winning squad in the team event in 2022.
 
If they had decided to retire following the 2022 season, no one could have blamed them.
 
But the one thing missing from their resume was a global championship, so they soldiered on. They won gold at Skate America in October – remarkably, their first Grand Prix gold medal since 2016 – and silver at the NHK Trophy in November. They then took silver at the Grand Prix Final in December before winning the U.S. Championships in January and Four Continents in February.
 
"The second half of the season was going well for us, so heading into Worlds, I would say we were feeling confident that we would skate our best and give ourselves the best chance for winning," Bates said. "We had skated well at U.S. Championships, skated even better at Four Continents, and we went straight from nationals to Four Continents, so we had this three weeks of whirlwind, two competitions in a row, essentially. But I think that really gave us a lot of confidence, when we got home from Colorado Springs and we reflected on what had happened over those last few weeks."
 
Chock and Bates touched down in Saitama as arguably the favorites to win the world title, and they skated like it. They skated their best rhythm dance of the season at that point to the tune of 91.94 points and followed it up with their best free dance of the season at that point, scoring 134.07 points, even despite a fall by Chock coming out of the spin.
 
"It was just such a fluke, what happened, I can't even explain it," Chock said. "But the skating and the emotions between the two of us felt really organic and exactly how we would like to feel as we're competing. So that was a really satisfying feeling, to just know that we performed and we skated the best that we could, regardless of a small slip in the middle.
 
"I was surprised and slightly disappointed that that happened because I would prefer it not to happen," she added with a laugh. "But I'm still really proud of the rest of our performance and knew that we had done our best, and that was a gratifying feeling."
 
Their total score of 226.01 points won by a comfortable margin over Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy, who scored 219.85 points.
 
With that, Chock and Bates took their place in the U.S. ice dance dynasty alongside Meryl Davis and Charlie White, their former training mates, as the only two U.S. teams to win a world title. Davis and White won in 2011 and 2013, and Chock and Bates were right at rinkside to celebrate when Davis and White won Olympic gold in 2014. In 2023, Davis and White texted to celebrate with Chock and Bates after they won their world title.
 
"We were inspired by Meryl and Charlie so much that we'll find ourselves going on YouTube and watching these iconic performances from them, even still, just as a little reminder of the greatness and use it as inspiration," Bates said. "We're so lucky because, coming up, we were right there to witness so many of their great performances and use that as motivation. Those memories are still so inspiring to us and reminders of what's possible if you work hard. We really got a sense of what it means to put 100% into your craft, because I think that is what Meryl and Charlie did so well. To me, they really embody the spirit of hard work and perseverance. So we always looked to them, and still look to them for inspiration. They'll always have a special place in our hearts and minds when we think about U.S. ice dance."
 
Chock and Bates also became the oldest team ever to win an ice dance world title – they are 30 and 34, respectively. In a sport that tends to value youth, they hope to inspire skaters with what's possible if you take care of yourself.
 
"It's actually really exciting to know that we're still improving and getting better past what the normal age has been for figure skating and for athletes to retire in figure skating," Chock said. "We're still getting better, and we feel like we still have more we can improve on, which is really exciting and mainly why we have continued for such a long time. We like the feeling of learning and the daily improvement. It's just great for the sport to show that there can be longevity in it, if you wish and if you work and if you're smart. I think it's really important to take care of yourself, and if you want to continue, know that you're able to and don't have to stop because you feel like maybe you're getting too old, or physically you feel like it's not working anymore. That's not where we want to be, so we've just been really fortunate with our group, with our trainers, to help us continue this longevity."
 
"We'd like to make the decision when to step away from competitive skating based on our internal feelings and not our physical pain," Bates added with a laugh.
 
That begs the question of their future. Chock and Bates have been touring with Stars on Ice since the World Championships and are looking forward to some vacation time this summer. They have a podcast, Unlaced with Chock and Bates, and, of course, will be planning a wedding at some point.
 
As for skating, though, we'll have to wait and see.
 
"I think we'll have a better sense of what's next when we can have a chance to decompress a little bit more," Bates said. "We've skated in front of thousands of people (with Stars on Ice), and we're so grateful for the opportunity to just celebrate the year."