Veteran ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates serve as support for first-time Olympians
The Olympic figure skating event got underway just ahead of the official Opening Ceremony at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Friday, and for three-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the event marked their fourth and fifth outings on Olympic ice respectively.
Yet the veteran athletes said the experience feels no less special.
“Any time you get the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, you want to cherish it,” Chock said.
“I just feel excited,” Bates said when asked if he felt extra pressure as favorites for team gold. “I’m so happy for our sport, for U.S. Figure Skating.”
Bates said that, more than ever, the skaters on Team USA hoped to bring figure skating back to the forefront of pop culture. After the ’90s golden age of the sport, when the sport’s stars became household names, figure skating experienced a drop in viewership and popularity.
A complicated new judging system, that fans first said was hard to understand, and a few controversies have long been blamed for the decline, but today’s Olympic skaters are ready to change the narrative.
“This generation of skaters are so fun, they’re so entertaining, and I think we have the firepower to make skating popular again,” Bates said. “Hopefully this Olympics will do that.”
