While his first reaction appeared measured and diplomatic, mounting backlash from fans pushed the Olympic legend to address the judging storm head-on. This time, he acknowledged the emotional toll more directly, revealing that the result hit far deeper than the public realized.
American ice skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates won silver on Wednesday night, despite a flawless performance that many onlookers felt deserved gold.
Chock and Bates, competing in their first Olympics as a married couple, scored a 134.67 in the free dance competition. French pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron scored a 135.64, giving them top podium position at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
A French judge scored Beaudry and Cizeron almost eight points higher than Chock and Bates, representing a clear outlier compared to the other Olympic judges.
This decision resulted in serious outrage from the figure skating community, with increasing calls to investigate alleged bias from this French judge.
Retired American figure skater Scott Hamilton, who’s now an analyst for NBC’s Olympic coverage, shared a social media post after Wednesday night’s controversial result.
“Phenomenal night of Ice Dance at #MilanoCortinaOlympics2026. Congratulations to all the skaters on a magnificent event. I’m especially proud of Madison Chock and Evan Bates for delivering one of their all-time greatest performances,” he wrote.
Some fans weren’t happy with this message from Hamilton, asking him to directly call out the judging scandal.
“Scott, the sport depends on people like you calling a spade a spade. If we aren’t going to call out the French and Spanish judge for clear bias and score manipulation, this sport will continue to be viewed as illegitimate,” one wrote.
“You’re a leader and commentator in this sport. You MUST call out the flawed and possibly rigged judging from the French team,” another said.
“Respectfully, it was not a wonderful night. Most of us are left wondering if the judging in this sport is completely rigged and why we should continue to watch it,” another added.
“Say it @ScottHamilton84 -they got screwed and @ISU_Figure has a problem on their hands. The world saw this very differently than a #Frenchjudge,” another wrote.
Chock and Bates are competing in their fourth Olympics as a skating pair. After they were awarded the silver medal, Chock called the moment “bittersweet.”
“It’s definitely a little bittersweet because we are so, so happy with how we performed this week,” Chock said. “We really gave it our all, and I wouldn’t change anything about how we approached each performance, what we delivered in each performance. We really gave it our best.”
