PAPADAKIS AND CIZERON. Olympic champions in 2021, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron have decided to put their careers on hold.
The time for a break has arrived. In an interview given to The Team and AFP, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron have announced that they want to take a break to enjoy shows and galas in particular. “We decided to take a year without competing. It was not really a difficult decision to make, explains Gabriella Papadakis. Difficult to confirm, perhaps because we had never made this kind of decision It’s new for sure, but at the same time, I think it was obvious that we both needed to rest and that we wouldn’t be returning to competitions in the fall.”
“We allowed ourselves all the time when it was possible not to think about it too much. After that comes the time when we have to make certain commitments for the following season. When choosing, it was obvious that we didn’t wasn’t going to want to do this year'” explains Guillaume Cizeron. If we stopped completely, it would seem that we stopped completely, reassures Guillaume Cizeron. “There we say that we are taking a year off because I think that we are not closing the door to possibly resume competition. “The duo claim not to know what they will decide in a year, for the 2023 season. -2024. “All doors are open, also explains Gabriella Papadakis. “If we have the idea of resuming, we don’t necessarily know after how long it would be. Our life has always been regulated and planned for the long term so much that we let ourselves go with the wind and what we want to do, to discover, before seeing what seems the most right to us. For the moment, the only certainty that we have harvested is that we will not do next season. “
Biographies. Gabriella Papadakis was born on May 10, 1995 in Clermont-Ferrand while Guillaume Cizeron was born on November 12, 1994 in Montbrison, a small town located in the Loire department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The two discover each other around the ice rink of the Auvergne Clermont Danse sur Glace club, where Catherine Papadakis, Gabriella’s mother, trains, while Marc, Guillaume Cizeron’s father, is the president. It was Catherine Papadakis who pushed the duo to form when they were aged nine and ten respectively, before training them.
Their first season at international junior level took place in 2009-2010 before leaving Clermont-Ferrand and settling in Lyon in 2012 to take a step forward. Romain Haguenauer became their coach and they won the silver medal at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Milan, before making their senior international debut in 2013-2014. They fail to be selected by France for the OJ from Sochi, who prefers to send Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès to Sochi. In the summer of 2014, they moved to Montreal, Canada, still with their coach Romain Haguenauer.
This is the start of the ascent. The duo competed in their first ISU Grand Prix finals (the highest level of competition in figure skating) and won their first titles on the world circuit before winning the French, European and world championships in 2015. A repeat treble in 2016, 2018 and 2019. In Pyeongchang, at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the couple won the silver medal after having a costume problem.
At the end of a short program and an absolutely majestic free program, the French duo flew over the competition by once again beating the world record with 226.98 points to offer the 3rd gold medal to France. The Russians Sinitsina-Katsalapov take second place (220.51) ahead of the Americans Hubbell-Donohue (218.02).
“It’s quite indescribable. Time doesn’t really exist anymore. Before skating, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t skated yet, that we hadn’t won yet. And afterwards, I couldn’t believe that we had already skated! Everything was mixed up. It’s a lot of relief to have done the performance that we did, to have skated well “launched Gabriella Papadakis. “I kinda restrained myself from screaming!” launched Guillaume Cizeron. “We’ve been dreaming of this for four years, or even more. Four years ago, we knew we were already capable of it, it was our goal, and it didn’t happen. And I think that this time, we really wanted it to happen.”
If they form a fusional duo on the ice, the two figure skaters Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are not a couple in life. “However, we are like an old couple, it’s as if we had been married for 30 years” confessed, in The ParisianGuillaume Cizeron in 2018. And nothing more between the two Frenchmen, who however sowed doubt during the 2015 World Championships. The day of their first world title in Shanghai, their performance had ended with a magnificent kiss, but without any meaning.
The French duo won the silver medal in Pyeongchang, but could certainly have done better without a costume problem. Just ten seconds into their short program, Gabriella Papadakis’ neck strap came loose, making the top of her costume looser and distracting the couple in their tricks. “She thought more about not finishing completely naked than skating,” summed up their coach Romain Hagenauer.
A great 2nd place for the Papadakis/Cizeron couple in ice dancing after the short program! ????????????????????????? #pyeongchang2018 pic.twitter.com/C9yvI1ToOm
— francetvsport (@francetvsport) February 19, 2018
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are quadruple world champions (2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019), five-time European champions (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) and seven-time French champion (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022) but also Olympic vice-champions (2018). They have also won 12 ISU Grand Prix Finals.
Guillaume Cizeron decided to publicly reveal his homosexuality on May 17, 2020, during the world day against homophobia and transphobia, without revealing the name of his companion. However, the skater “doesn’t really consider it a coming out”, as he confessed to the magazine Stubbornbecause he had “never spoken publicly about (his) sexual orientation”.