Updated, Feb. 20, 2018: French ice dance team Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron received a silver medal Monday night (early Tuesday afternoon in PyeongChang) after overcoming a wardrobe malfunction during their short program that left Papadakis exposed on live TV.
They moved on to the free dance in second place, ready to skate with the elegance and fluidity that makes them truly remarkable. The pair scored a total of 205.28 points, finishing behind Canadian duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
USA’s Maia and Alex Shibutani (or the “Shib Sibs”) received the bronze.
France’s Gabriella Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron earn the #silver in ice dance! pic.twitter.com/jcQVZwKcHL
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 20, 2018
“It was a really great performance,” Papadakis said, according to USA TODAY. “We couldn’t have skated better. It was amazing to deliver what we did today for our first Olympics.”
You can watch Papadakis and Cizeron’s full free dance here.
Original Story, Feb. 19, 2018: French skater Gabriella Papadakis, alongside partner Guillaume Cizeron, finished second in the ice dance short program last night eastern time — but Papadakis wasn’t celebrating. She suffered a major wardrobe malfunction on live TV when her halter top unfastened at the beginning of the performance and, by the end, left her breast exposed (think Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show).
NBC quickly edited the mishap out of future broadcasts and online videos, but people still saw it. Some even posted it to Twitter.
I feel terrible. 10 mins ago I posted a screenshot of the French skater and her wardrobe malfunction. It was up 30 sec and I was called out. I deleted immediately. In retrospect im sick that I would think that was appropriate ?. My apologies to my followers ☹️
— Quinn Magnuson (@QMags65) February 19, 2018
“Our coverage of ice dancing was live tonight,” NBC said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Once a competitor’s brief wardrobe issue became evident, we purposely used wider camera shots and carefully selected replays to keep the issue obscured. We have edited the video for all television encores and online replays.”
CBC, Canada’s official broadcaster for the PyeongChang Olympics, responded on Twitter as well: “We aired this event live with no tape delay and the replay packages are provided to us by the host broadcaster. We will be removing these moments from our re-broadcasts.”
We aired this event live with no tape delay and the replay packages are provided to us by the host broadcaster. We will be removing these moments from our re-broadcasts.
— CBC (@CBC) February 19, 2018
Papadakis, 22, and Cizeron, 23, still placed second with an 81.93 despite the wardrobe malfunction, and they will skate tonight in the free dance program (Tuesday morning in PyeongChang).
“It is just frustrating to miss a few points because of a costume issue,” Cizeron, who reportedly addressed much of the press for the two of them, said after their performance. “It is not what we get ready for when we train. I am still proud that we managed to pull out a program like that even with a difficulty like this.”
According to PEOPLE, when one reporter asked them to comment on something other than the malfunction, Papadakis said, “Thank you for not talking about the dress anymore,” seemingly grateful.
“It was pretty distracting, kind of my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics,” she said. “I told myself, ‘I don’t have a choice. I have to keep going,’ and that’s what we did. I think we can be proud of ourselves being able to deliver a great performance with that happening.”
Even if people are talking about the wardrobe malfunction, Papadakis handled it like a pro. And if it happened to us, we know we’d be in much worse shape than this Olympian — we’d bet all the gold medals on that.
WATCH: Gabriella Papadakis’ wardrobe malfunction
You can watch an edited version of their full performance on NBC’s site.
