Papadakis and Cizeron storm to historic fifth world ice dance title in front of home crowd in Montpellier

Just a three-hour car ride away from where Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron first began skating together some 15 years ago, the French Olympic champions captured their fifth world title on Saturday night.

It seemed the whole France was in attendance to witness them at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier, France, as they soared to a world record 229.82 off a chilling, elegant free dance set to "Elegie" which scored a 137.09 - also a highest ever.

It's a fifth World Figure Skating Championships title for them (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), making them the first ice dance team to win five world championship titles in nearly 50 years.

Papadakis/Cizeron finished comfortably ahead of Montreal-based training mates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the U.S., the silver medallists with a 222.39. The bronze went to Madison Chock and Evan Bates, another American team that is based in Montreal, who scored a 216.83.

All of the top three teams registered career-best totals.

Papadakis/Cizeron cap their golden season off with a world title, just five weeks after they won a long-awaited Olympic gold at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. It was there that Hubbell/Donohue won bronze and Chock/Bates finished fourth.

Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won the silver in Beijing, but the International Skating Union did not allow Russian skaters at worlds this year.

Italy's Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri finished in fourth place, while Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were fifth and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain rounded out the top sixth.

"It's the most beautiful competition of our careers, the support has been incredible," Cizeron said in an in-arena interview after their victory. "We couldn't be more grateful."

MORE: See how Saturday's action unfolded in Montpellier - Check out our live blog

Papadakis/ Cizeron feted by sold out crowd

It was a golden homecoming for Papadakis and Cizeron, who won their Olympic gold in front of just a smattering of fans in Beijing. A near sold out crowd in Montpellier was the biggest and most certainly loudest of the World Championships weekend.

"We don't have many opportunities to skate at home - it's once in a lifetime, it's rare," said Papadakis. "We are very, very lucky to have this opportunity and it's pretty special for us to achieve this at home."

Papadakis/Cizeron took to the ice amidst thunderous applause and then started their program to silence. They glided through their program, gaining Level 4s on their twizzles and enrapturing the nearly 9,000 fans in attendance.

"It was much better than we could have imagined," Cizeron continued. "To have a full audience here after Covid... it was incredible. It's an indescribable feeling. I can't explain how it feels to have that many people scream for us. We both had chills. It was hard for us to hold our tears before we skated. It was very emotional for us to skate here at home."

Prior to the French, both American teams had shone bright in their respective free dances. It's a fourth consecutive world medal for Hubbell/Donohue, as well as a third world medal for Chock and Bates - including their first since 2016.

None of the top five teams moved positions from the rhythm dance, with Chock/Bates building a seven-point cushion over Guignard/Fabbri for their podium place.

Fear and Gibson received a standing ovation for their "Lion King" free dance, hop-scotching from seventh to sixth. Spain's Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz placed seventh overall, while Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker of the U.S. were eighth.

Hubbell/ Donohue say farewell

It was a final competition for Hubbell and Donohue, who announced their retirement at the beginning of the season.

Hubbell was reflective on their journey and learnings from throughout their career.

"I realised that something I really admired about myself was my ability to attack a performance and be confident in how excellent I can be," she said. "I decided I was going to be authentic to myself; I wasn't going to search for the emotion of it being my last time. I couldn't be happier with what we did on the ice."

Chock and Bates, meanwhile, reflected on the six-year gap from 2016 - their most recent world medal. 

"I think we would have never guessed it would take us six years after being on the podium in 2015 and 16," said Bates. "We felt like we were constantly putting 100 per cent into our craft and trying so hard to get back on the podium for so many years. This is a difficult achievement to accomplish and I think when we were on the World podium before, we didn't appreciate it as much as we do today."

With Canadian team Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen finishing ninth and Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania in tenth, the Montreal-based Ice Academy of Montreal scored eight of the top 10 finishes.