Q: About ten days have passed since your Olympic title.

Are you starting to realize?

GP: "I think so. In fact, it's a medal that we have so imagined having for so long that we are not surprised. It is a mixture of relief, happiness, calm , after all the stress dissipates."

Q: Looking back, did you experience the strongest emotions of your career in Beijing?

GC: "The most strongly positive, yes."

GP: "The whole competition was very strong (in emotions). The stress is the strongest we have ever experienced. And the joy of having the medal is also the greatest. Negative emotions always seem stronger than positive emotions, so I feel like I had more emotions at the Pyeongchang Games (in 2018) than at those, but that's just because it was between quotes easier."

French skaters Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis, at the end of their ice dance free program, February 14, 2022 at the Beijing Olympics SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

Q: You sang the Marseillaise with enthusiasm...

GP: "We applied ourselves! We wanted to take advantage of every second of this podium and the Marseillaise. Four years ago, I remember that we had to listen to the Canadian anthem and it didn't was necessarily the most beautiful moment of my life... So there, I said to myself: + It's the Marseillaise, I sing it! +"

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron sing the Marseillaise on the podium during the official ceremony, after winning the Olympic title in ice dancing, on February 14, 2022 at the Beijing Games WANG Zhao AFP / Archives

GC: "Of course it's a point of pride when you're on the podium. At that moment, we have a little patriotic side that is born in us. In addition, by training in Montreal for so many years, we are not often in France. It's a time when being French, it makes sense for us."

Q: From the start of your career, you said you wanted to innovate.

Mission accomplished ?

GP: "In any case, we did what we wanted to do. We always did the programs we wanted to do. We always skated to the music we wanted. Afterwards, did we revolutionized ice dancing or not? It's not necessarily up to us to judge. We stayed true to our vision, and that's all we wanted."

Q: Other skaters are already inspired by your style, your musical choices... What does that inspire you?

GC: "It's beautiful to see. We are quite proud of that. Afterwards, these things are fashions, trends, we know that it will give way to others later. But we have been for several years in search of the difference, of what was going to be able to surprise the public. We tried to remove the frills and all that was, in any case in our opinion, too much in ice dancing. base, it was really just to find our way in. Since we didn't find ourselves in the slightly too mannered side, too much in disguise, the too much side in fact, we tried to reduce it to something that was more authentic, more true. This research, it brought us to where we are today."

The French Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis, during their ice dance free program, on February 14, 2022 at the Beijing Olympics SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

Q: Charlie White, 2010 Olympic ice dancing champion, tweeted that he thanked you for what you have brought to ice dancing.

What does this represent for you?

GC: "It can't not make us happy. But it's difficult to measure for ourselves the impact we were able to have. I think that we had, at several times, the courage not to to get into the game, not to give people what they necessarily expected of us. It paid off because it surprised, and people want to be surprised, surprised, they want to be touched, they don't want to see what "They've seen it dozens and dozens of times. In fact, we tried to innovate while trying to stay inspired and close to who we are."

The French Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis, during their short ice dance program, February 12, 2022 at the Beijing Olympics Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP

GP: "The real impact, I think we will realize as the years go by. At the same time, it's great, it's a nice place to have."

Q: You also reach beyond skating enthusiasts...

GP: "There isn't much that could make us more happy. One of the reasons why we wanted to do different things is because we realized that the sport we loved wasn't very popular with people who didn't really know him. We really wanted to reach out to people who liked dance, art in general, and tell them, skating is also a form of art, a representation of what's happening in the world, and it's current. And sharing our passion with as many people as possible."

Q: What are you going to do with your gold medal?

GC: "I'll hang it somewhere."

The joy of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Olympic ice dancing champions, on February 14, 2022 at the Beijing Games WANG Zhao AFP / Archives

GP: "Me too. It's the first one, I've never hung one in my life. That one, it's decided."

Interview by Elodie SOINARD

© 2022 AFP