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2015: The Lightning Rise
"We're really at the start of our career, so we really didn't expect it. We impressed ourselves!" Cizeron was surprised after the French duo's first title in Shanghai.
“I would have laughed in the face of anyone who predicted my future,” laughs Papadakis.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, ice dancing world champions, on March 27, 2015 in Shanghai JOHANNES EISELE AFP / Archives
At 19 for her and 20 for him, for only their second winter as seniors, Papadakis and Cizeron, who had become European champions two months earlier, are defying the corseted laws of ice dancing: in a discipline in which to climb the ladder usually takes time, they climb in a year from the 13th place in the world to the first.
"The goal this season was to make themselves known. We didn't think they + would hit + so high so soon", is even surprised their trainer Romain Haguenauer, who has accompanied them since 2012 and whom they followed at Montreal in the summer of 2014.
Already, the young duo expresses their artistic ambition which is their strength: "to give meaning to all that. Our goal is not only to beat the others" but "to touch people".
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, during their ice dance program at the World Championships in Shanghai, March 27, 2015 GOH CHAI HIN AFP / Archives
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2016: confirmation despite the concussion
The following season, eventful and shortened, was nevertheless golden.
Papadakis, who suffered a concussion in a fall in training at the end of August, suffered from loss of balance, problems with concentration and memory, and mood disorders for several months.
A "brain re-education" with a method used by the American military puts her back on her feet.
If Papadakis and Cizeron do not start their winter until mid-December, that does not prevent them from adorning themselves again with European gold first then world in Boston (United States).
"Last year, it came as a surprise. There, we were in difficulty until the end, we had doubts until the end. It's stronger," she appreciates.
A few days earlier, an unfortunate skating on the left knee had earned him eight stitches.
The joy of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, next to their coaches Marie-France Dubreuil and Romain Hagenauer, discovering their final ice dance scores at the Boston Worlds, March 31, 2016 Maddie Meyer GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives
"Despite the fact that we are at the start of our career, we are leaving an imprint in skating, I hope it will be done over time", projects Cizeron.
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2018: the consolation prize
Things changed in 2016/2017, with the return to competition of Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, 2010 Olympic champions and 2014 Olympic vice-champions.
"It's a little scary, but it will be enriching, inspiring, boosting", considers Papadakis.
More beaten since December 2014, Papadakis and Cizeron, to whom everything smiled since their early explosion, find themselves faced with defeat, at the Worlds-2017 in particular.
The rivalry with Virtue and Moir, daily and tense, culminates at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang (South Korea), with the misadventure of the dress that comes off.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, during their ice dance short program at the Pyeongchang Olympics, February 19, 2018 Mladen ANTONOV AFP/Archives
Their Canadian rivals gone, the French dancers consoled themselves a month later in Milan with a third world title, after their poetic performance on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and three world records.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, during their ice dance short program at the World Figure Skating Championships, March 23, 2018 in Milan MIGUEL MEDINA AFP / Archives
"We couldn't have finished on a better note. It's a real challenge to continue to progress after a long season", retains Cizeron.
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2019: the new start
A new Olympiad, new breath: Papadakis and Cizeron put on their skates late, the time to "recharge the batteries".
"Compared to last year, we took things a little more calmly, with a little more calm", describes Cizeron.
Not enough to make them lose the thread they have been weaving at the highest level since 2015.
In Saitama, in the greater suburbs of Tokyo, they capped a fourth world crown, two months after a fifth consecutive European title.
On the same Japanese ice where, at 18 and 19, they experienced their very first World Championships (13th).
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, during their rhythmic dance program at the Saitama Worlds, March 22, 2019 Nicolas Datiche Nicolas Datiche/AFP/Archives
"It's weird to realize that we've come this far in just five years," Papadakis breathes.
"It's a springboard for the next few years, we try to keep some energy for the next three," adds Cizeron.
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2022: the icing on the Olympic cake
If they ended with the much desired Olympic gold, these three years were not ordinary.
The golden couple Gabriella Papadakis-Guillaume Cizeron on the top step of the ice dance podium at the Beijing Games, February 14, 2022 WANG Zhao AFP
At the start of 2020 at the European Championships, Papapadakis and Cizeron experienced their first defeat since the 2018 Olympics.
Then the pandemic set in, leading to the cancellation of the Worlds-2020 and their deadlock on the 2021 edition, for visa issues.
So much so that these Worlds-2022 are the first for Papadakis and Cizeron since 2019.
The competition organized in France is the occasion for a "beautiful celebration" at home, which they perfectly honored, those who returned this season from a period of twenty months without competition.
This fifth coronation makes them the first five-time French skating world champions.
In the history of ice dancing, only the Soviets Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexandr Gorshkov are now ahead of them in the number of world titles, with six between 1970 and 1976.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, during their ice dancing program at the World Figure Skating Championships, March 26, 2022 in Montpellier Pascal GUYOT AFP
Will they challenge this record?
Interrogation point.
© 2022 AFP