MONTREAL, CANADA
GABRIELLA & GUILLAUME TEAM FRANCE
This week, Romain and I are going
to the Italian Grand Prix in Torino, Italy,
with our top two teams,
Gabriella and Guillaume and Madi and Zach.
So you come back on the circle and you...
One, check. Yes, exactly.
The first time of the season
that our top teams actually face off,
it's always a bit stressful.
Attention. Watch. The French.
They were attacking you.
They're afraid, they want to try to beat me now.
Of course.
ON EDGE
Gabi and Guillaume are a poem on skates.
It's like they just move as an energy field together.
Nice.
They started super young together,
so they could skate like blind
and be able to follow each other.
Madi and Zach are just, they're a powerhouse.
Their energy is really high.
When they skate, I mean, you don't want to be in their way.
They command space and attention.
They show off, they attack.
They are very American, but in a good way!
This is going to be our first time competing at a Grand Prix
with Gabi and Guillaume for quite a while.
So we have this opportunity
to see where we stand competitively.
Obviously we want to win,
but that's not going to be easy.
We see Madi and Zach train every day, and we know
that they have very, very strong programs.
We've always had a really interesting connection
with Gabi and Guillaume, and I think that
that sense of camaraderie has never really left.
We have a lot of respect for each other
and what we bring to ice dance,
and there is something very special
about having the sportsmanship
to cheer on your toughest competition
at the same time as being driven to beat them.
Oh, yes. See you later.
See you in Torino.
TORINO, ITALY
It was nice being back here in Torino
and we skated here two years ago.
It's been a while since we traveled overseas.
As much as we have experience doing it, the body...
A little out of practice in our body, yeah.
It's a little tired.
And I'm thinking,
"Oh God, is it going to feel that bad tomorrow?"
Representing France!
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.
Gabriella and Guillaume,
they really delivered a strong performance,
solid with zero mistakes.
They got very good marks, good levels.
Madi and Zach, they were able to a little bit
abandon themselves and they were so believable.
I love how they are gaining confidence in their big lift
at the beginning because they've been working
on this for the whole year.
There was a little bit of a,
you know, toe pick, almost fall situation.
But Zach was so in the moment and so grounded
that he would have saved anything today.
So it was a good test today to see
where his focus is right now and it was right on point.
GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA 2021 FINAL SCORE
If they are a bit disappointed with their total points,
the second place, they are very pleased with that and me too.
We really stepped it up, which was our goal here.
Yeah, we're very happy to have won.
We're so happy for you!
We're so happy.
My Guillaume.
Bravo, bravo, bravo!
I am really happy that my parents
and my grandparents were able to come
and they are always so happy to see us skate.
Bravo, Gabi, bravo!
I saw you on the upper screen, behind the curtains.
We had the flag.
It's always nice to have family support at a competition.
You know, I think they've always been
a part of our journey since the beginning.
They're the reason why we started skating
in the first place and they've always given
so much of their time and energy and support.
-Okay, one, two, three... -Thanks.
It's great to get to celebrate with them
at the end of the competition.
Cheers to the champions!
Cheers, Guillaume!
It is frustrating.
I know we would have gotten higher points
without that big mistake at the end.
It was just a moment that was so unexpected.
I didn't have anything to do except just like,
I don't know what I did.
I felt a little bit of a rock,
and I saw your other leg was like behind your head,
kind of like, almost like a lunge,
and then you cussed in my ear.
-And I said, "Just sell it!" -Sorry.
Yeah, I had this split moment where I was like,
"Oh shoot, we're going down."
I had like so many things going through my head at that moment.
And then, you know,
tried to save in the ugliest save ever.
Mistakes happen on lifts.
I've gotten a few boot blade-groin meetings.
PRACTICE RUN-THROUGH SIX WEEKS AGO
I kicked him pretty good.
-Where? -In the balls.
But that particular type of mistake with footing
and like really losing balance and having to save it
has actually never happened to me.
Hello Mother.
Hello! Congratulations!
Thank you!
You guys were phenomenal and phenomenally underscored.
It is tough to feel like you improve a lot
and it's not necessarily rewarded
or you still have that almost 10-point gap
with Gabi and Guillaume and...
It was a travesty, but, you know...
-Non-biased at all. -Yeah.
We appreciate everything that Gabi and Guillaume do,
they're amazing skaters, but it is hard as a competitor,
even with a mistake at the end of the program,
to feel like you're almost 10 points behind in one program.
That's a gap in ice dance that doesn't feel you can close.
The job we came to do is done,
and so let's go open a nice bottle of wine.
Enjoy our evening.
Be grateful for the amazing experience we had,
what we learned, what we accomplished.
Yeah.
Why is it that in Europe they send you to the airport
before the counter's open for your flight?
-I don't know. -To Russia.
So it's an hour and thirty minute flight.
It doesn't make sense. I agree.
To our first time competing together in like four years.
Congrats, I'm so happy to be here with you.
We're going to hear a lot more of that
-in about two glasses of this. -Yeah.
Oh, I'm going to miss you so much you guys!
We certainly have a very close bond with Gabriella.
We hang out off the ice quite a bit.
We love doing different art projects together.
We've done photo shoots together.
She is the most outgoing and fun-loving person.
It's been really nice to have that close friendship.
We've been really close over the years.
But over the past month, we've been so busy
that we haven't really spent that much time together
and it was really nice to reconnect.
I remember the first time we traveled with you.
We went to France to compete together
-In Bordeaux. -in Bordeaux.
In Bordeaux.
And the first place we see Gabi is sitting
with a random friend of hers having a glass of wine.
-We're like... -No, he was having one.
No, no. You were having a glass of wine.
-Was I? -One hundred percent.
Well if that's how you remember me.
Like when I came up to the table,
you were like this...
Being able to actually have a relationship
with our competitors, I think is important.
It can get very intense.
"I want to beat this person and this person is my rival,"
but like it allows you to be able
to really appreciate your competitors.
And with appreciation comes respect and learning.
Thank you.
-Buon appetito. -Grazie mille.
I'm like ready to go home,
but I don't want to go back to that food.
Do you remember what you fed me?
What I fed you?
The first time I came to visit Adrián in Montreal?
He was training and you made pasta with olive oil
or butter or something.
But I swear to God you gave me
a plate of pasta like this big, and I was like, "Okay..."
And then we're eating and you're like,
"Hmm, it needs something. One second."
And then you toasted like 10 pieces of bread.
And you're like,
you know, "Here's bread and butter."
And I was like, "That's not what we need right beside it."
What?
You're our competitors.
I'm coming to visit, and he's like,
"Here's some pasta with bread!"
I was trying to feed you.
I'm like, "This is sabotage!"
ON EDGE