Winter Olympics ‘rigging’ scandal boils over as THOUSANDS of fans demand answers over ice skating judge accused of playing favorites

The ‘rigging’ scandal engulfing the Winter Olympics is showing no signs of slowing down, with more than 14,000 fans urging the authorities to investigate French judge Jezabel Dabouis.

The petition, spreading like wildfire around the world, comes amid allegations Dabouis ‘rigged’ her votes to help her country to Winter Olympics gold – and after the International Skating Union opted to stand by her. 

French ice dancing couple Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron stunned the world when they beat the American team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates at the Milan-Cortina Games on Wednesday. 

Dabouis favored Beaudry and Cizeron by nearly eight points over the three-time world champions in the free dance, a margin so large that if her score was removed from the equation, Chock and Bates would have won gold.

Fury has since erupted from fans, but in a statement the ISU instead backed the judge and risked the wrath of fans by making no mention of any plans to investigate the circumstances that led to Team USA missing out on gold. 

‘It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judge in any panel and a number of mechanism are used to mitigate these variations,’ the ISU said, adding it has ‘full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.’

There is little recourse for the US pair if the global governing body is unwilling to investigate the scoring discrepancy.

This is not the first time Dabouis has turned in questionable scores for Beaudry and Cizeron. Last year, at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Japan, the French pair missed one element of their routine and also had a fall which would usually keep them well away from the podium places. Daubois rewarded them with a superb score and they took silver.

The French judge also had a wide margin favoring her country in the Olympic rhythm dance, when they also beat the US team.

‘Any time the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport,’ said Chock, who along with Bates won a second straight team gold medal earlier in the Games. ‘I think it’s hard to retain fans when it’s difficult to understand what is happening on the ice.

‘People need to understand what they’re cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that they’re supporting.’

The most famous judging controversy in Olympic figure skating also involved a French judge.

During the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia won gold over the Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. 

But allegations of vote-swapping and selling of votes by French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne led to an investigation by the ISU and the International Olympic Committee, and she was ultimately found guilty of misconduct and suspended.

Sale and Pelletier ultimately were elevated to gold while the Russian pair was allowed to keep their medals.

Two years later, the ISU eliminated its 6.0 judging system due to its inherent subjectivity. The replacement system, which has been tweaked over the years but remains in place, features two scores added together: one where each element is graded off a base value to establish a technical score and another where judges provide a component score for overall skating skill and performance.

‘We did speak to our coach, and we did talk to each other, and we know how we felt on center ice after we skated,’ Bates said of the silver medal. 

‘We felt like we delivered our absolute best performance that we could have. It was our Olympic moment. It felt like a winning skate to us and that’s what we’re going to hold on to.’

‘The[re] must be an investigation!’ one user fumed on social media as news of the potential scandal began to surface.

‘This is a judging scandal,’ another said. ‘There aren’t many times in sports where several times over it seems to be rigged… Chock and Bates (and others) got robbed.’

There was a huge outcry among both viewers and fellow competitors, with American figure skater Ellie Kam describing her compatriots as ‘true champions’, on Instagram.

Meanwhile, the gold medal-winning French pair have been dogged by ‘toxic’ allegations about their pasts.

Fournier Beaudry has faced intense scrutiny over her relationship with boyfriend and former skating partner, Nikolaj Sorensen, who was suspended in 2024 following allegations of a 2012 sexual assault involving a former skater and coach.

He denied the accusations and, though his six-year suspension from Skate Canada was eventually overturned on a technicality, the scandal effectively ended his competitive career. Fournier Beaudry recently lamented the situation in the Netflix docuseries ‘Glitter & Gold’, claiming the ordeal ruined her partner’s life.

Meanwhile, Cizeron arrived in Milan facing explosive claims from his former gold-medal-winning partner, Gabriella Papadakis.

In an interview ahead of her memoir ‘So as Not to Disappear’, Papadakis described Cizeron as ‘controlling, demanding and critical.’ She wrote that she felt under his ‘control’ and was ‘terrified’ of being alone with him during their time as a world-leading pair.

Cizeron has hit back at the claims, labeling them a ‘smear campaign’ and confirming he is pursuing legal action. ‘I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to me,’ he told Reuters. ‘The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious.’