Ice Dancer Guillaume Cizeron Sets World Record, Wins Olympic Gold

A second Olympic gold medal for out LGBTQ+ athletes at the games in Beijing.

On Saturday gay skater Guillaume Cizeron and his skating partner, Gabriella Papadakis, set a world record in the ice dance competition at the Winter Olympics. The pair scored 90.83. They followed that with a combined score of 226.98 on Monday, setting yet another world record. Those numbers guaranteed that the skaters would bring home gold for Team France in the competition.

The two are four-time world champions and performed to a John Legend medley. In 2018, they won silver medals at the Olympic games. This year they beat out Team Russia, who won silver, and Team USA, who won bronze, for the top spot.

They have been skating together for more than 15 years.

Cizeron came out publicly as gay in 2020. For International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, he posted a photo of himself and his boyfriend. It was the first time he had mentioned his sexuality publicly, and he later did an interview acknowledging the moment.

"Even though I have never spoken publicly about my sexual orientation, I am one of those who think that it is not something that [people] should have to do," he told the French magazine Tetu, according to a translation. "Straight people don't come out. ... I still hesitated a bit before publishing. Because I'm not in the habit of revealing really intimate things. I don't know what got into me, I said to myself, 'What do I have to lose?'"

In October, Cizeron was forced to respond to homophobia in his sport. After competing in Finland, Alexander Vedenin, a former international judge, made comments that Cizeron and Papadakis were "cold" because Cizeron is gay.

"The French skate with class but are cold," he reportedly said after stating the pair would be hard to beat. "The partner does not have a traditional orientation [euphemism for gay] and he cannot hide it. Sinitsina and Katsalapov can express true love, like last year, and it can lead them to a victory." The latter comment referred to Russian skaters Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.

Cizeron responded to the remarks on Instagram.

"Homophobic comments have no place in the world of figure skating or sport and I hope the ISU stand with me to send a clear message that they can not be tolerated, who ever they might be coming from," he wrote. An investigation was launched into the incident.