The Ice Academy in Montreal is the epicenter
of the world's best ice dancers.
Being able to train with your top competitors
and all the top coaches makes the environment special.
It's a very important year
because the Olympics are in less than 6 months.
That's why it's a competition. Whoever does it best.
-Hello. -Hello.
-Matthew's at 5:45? -Uh, around, around that.
Come for dinner around 10.
We're ready to host you over there.
Right. Down.
Up and down, up and down.
Up. Up.
Bam, bam, bam.
You did that, all your...
Okay. So keep the same thing we just go...
Oui, oui, oui. Yep.
We are in Montreal. It's the Olympic year.
We have couples from all over the world.
The energy is awesome.
Connection, eh?
Push. Push your transition.
The Ice Academy in Montreal is the epicenter
of the world's best ice dancers.
And it's the most inspiring environment,
and a lot of fun, too.
-Boom. -Yes, exactly.
Training with a bunch of teams from many countries...
Yeah! Again.
I'm always alone,
and I have to say I prefer to be surrounded by other teams.
It's more motivating.
Having your direct competitors in your face every day
just pushes you to raise the bar
and bring it to the next level.
Great day to have a nosebleed.
We are following and training
a bunch of different couples from different countries.
We're going to start with our two top teams in America.
We have Maddie and Evan, and we have Madison and Zach.
Also from France, we have Gabi, Guillaume.
From Spain, Olivia, Adrian. Great Britain, Lilah, Lewis.
And our Canadians, Laurence and Nik.
We're getting them ready to go the Olympics
that are gonna happen in Beijing in 2022.
Yes, Maddie. Great correction.
There's something about your confidence
and calmness that I like.
Yeah.
My name is Madison Hubbell, and I, among other things,
I'm an ice dancer for Team USA with this guy, Zach Donohue.
You want to just continue introducing me?
Yeah, he is 30 years old. He is a Capricorn.
He likes cars and motorcycles.
And also, kind of figure skating, a little bit.
Sometimes I skate. Yeah.
Who has the good breath? You?
-Is that sarcastic good breath? -Oh, it's Tiger Balm.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, ok. -Yeah, I was like,
I don't have eggs. I hope it's not that.
Like, "My name is Zach. I'm a Capricorn.
I like long walks on the beach."
I love long walks on the beach.
Show me the next part.
Maddie and Zach, they've been in there.
They've paid their dues. They've been super close.
Seeing someone out there
who has complete confidence in what they're doing,
you have to be there to witness it.
The speed and the raw power
of those two is really impressive.
So toe taps.
-Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap... -Tap.
-Like this? -Yes.
-Like tap dancing? -Yeah.
There you go. There you go. Just like that.
You're his shadow, right?
So wherever he goes, you gotta follow.
-Okay. -Right? So you got to try
and lose her. Let's go.
No. Yeah. Only feet, only feet. There you go.
I don't remember the day we first met,
because we were skating in the same club.
I don't remember.
I don't know if you remember the first day, but I just...
The first time I saw you.
Yeah, I invited you in my seventh birthday party.
And then we started skating
like two years after that? Something like that?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
What are you doing after the "bauer"?
You push, you do the "bauer." Then push!
Chase, run.
We met Romain when we were about,
I don't know, say, 13? 14?
And chase. Okay, yes.
He's very demanding, but it's very encouraging
to know that your coach
knows that you can do better than what you think you can do.
Ice dance is a sport of maturity
because to create the quality, you need time.
Do you feel when he raises his hand like this?
Gabi, do you feel when, yes, before pulling back the legs?
What is your goal?
Every time we train,
we try to imagine what it would feel like to win the Olympics
and then try to visualize it,
and try to get in the spirit and the mood.
Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron from France.
It was our first Olympics, first event.
We were on the ice, and then we started our choreography,
and then my top opened.
And then we both felt it at the moment.
And it was really just after ten seconds
of choreogra--, not even.
They can say that they've got a problem
-with the costume. -You could see the costume has,
her neck, necklace has come apart.
Because of that we didn't have the performance
that we worked so hard for.
Not the reaction that the previous pair had.
Gabi, Guillaume, they're masters of their craft.
And you're looking at, in my opinion,
is possibly the best of all time.
81.93 second place
behind Virtue and Moir from Canada.
It's the first time I saw them crying on competition after.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir!
Their second gold medal of these winter Olympic games.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
I know that Pyeongchang
didn't go the way that they wanted it to.
They had their Pyeongchang moment.
I hope they're proud of those Olympic silver medals.
They need to go to Beijing and have different moments,
but shaking those ghosts is not easy.
They seem super motivated,
and I feel they have a hunger they've never had before.
For them, it's gold or bust, and that is intense pressure.
We're gonna do the garlic with the green beans
and what else was in there?
Just the green beans?
-And mushrooms? -Mmm, yeah.
I'm going to cut this onion even though we don't need it,
because we're just going to add onion because I like onion.
We met Maddie and Evan a few times in competition
and talked with them and really loved them.
-Henry? -Is the meat good, Evan?
Come here. Henry, come here.
I think it all started with, like, either,
"Can you babysit my dog?"
Or, "Do you guys want to come for dinner?"
And then those dinners were just endless.
You're gone the next three weekends?
Yes.
We're doing one competition the 10th of September.
In Italy. And you guys are going to Finland, right?
-Yup. -Yeah.
Are you guys able to watch them
-this coming weekend? -Anytime. Anytime.
-'Kay. -I can take them tomorrow.
-Not tomorrow. -This week?
The rest of my life?
We didn't hang out with them as much
until the pandemic hit and then we all became closer,
and just realized, like,
"Oh, we're going to be friends for the rest of our lives."
Like, of course. Of course.
-Friends, please take one. -Oh.
-Sparkling. -Sparkling water or...
-Even better than that. -Fake champagne.
Oh, my gosh. So fancy, babe.
Talking about, what's it like to train with your competitors?
It's like, but they're also our best friends.
Oh!
I didn't know we were celebrating that.
-Congratulations. -When we leave for competition,
they'll watch our dogs
and they'll like watch them as though they're their own,
and it means a lot to us.
No one's drinking my White Claw.
No peer pressure. No peer pressure.
-We have one can for four? -That's about right.
It's all we get at this point in the season.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue
of the United States.
Both 27 years old in their first Olympics.
I think what we were doing in 2018
was striving for an Olympic medal.
The bronze medal could be on the line for them
between them and their teammates.
They need 127.54. That's gonna be tough.
And we had never been on the world podium,
and we thought we deserved it,
and we believed in ourselves, and it didn't happen.
And so much of that Games was kind of riddled
with my own disappointment.
So this is our last season.
We have decided to retire from competitive skating.
I think we're in that process
of trying to banish all of the doubt.
I want to win the next Olympics.
If your partner is a little bit slow,
you don't just go, "Well, the music's here!
I don't care if you fall!"
One or two times, yes, I agree.
But consistently, every single time?
That's a problem that has to be addressed.
So are we already on every single time?
I think people who skate by us
sometimes are like, "Oh my God, they're fighting again."
I'm trying to follow you.
This is a pointless conversation.
It's a change of track. It's a different track,
and a very different feeling, coming from the waltz.
We've always had this certain chemistry,
and we dated for about 2 1/2 years.
The thing that connects us as partners is the passion
and the interest in skating.
I think beyond that becomes the emotional connection
that we have with each other and that kind of fire and fire.
-Yeah. -Yes.
Come up with solutions
rather than being attached to a certain feeling.
I just brought it up! I wasn't complaining!
All the world titles and all national titles that we've made
are kind of a gift to ourselves
to just be like, it doesn't matter.
It'll be the most amazing end to a career
to have an Olympic medal around my neck,
but I also want it to be the most amazing
end to my career
to experience the Olympics again with Zach.
They're really starting to find their love of the sport again,
which is a powerful thing for an Olympic athlete,
and a powerful thing for an ice dancer at the end,
because you realize the clock is ticking.
So I think they're gonna be a team to watch this year.
I think these two have the capability
of really mixing things up.
Now it's official.
-Fist, shoulder. Boom. -Opposite.
Whoosh and bom. There you go.
I like that.
We're in August now. This is kind of a crunch month.
It's way too early in the season for everything to work,
but you want it. Like, your ego wants it.
If we came out...
if we came out and were touching wherever the turn is,
could we be there to come back? I think that's stronger.
You have that performance aspect of, "Holy cow.
There is less time. There is less time."
And then just trusting that
you can pull some sort of rabbit out of your hat
when the time is near.
The head, boom. That's one.
I would try to detach from his shoulder and then engage.
Exact amount. So it's nice.
It is always the same feeling
which is, "What are the judges gonna feel?"
Are these people are going to like the program or not?
-One, two, three, and four. -Up.
It's crazy, the psychology of the sport.
Everything has to be perfect every single time,
and you're always putting on a show.
I like it a lot.
They need to have the X factor, the it factor,
which is connection, which is being able
to tell a story, and captivate an audience,
and at the end of the day at the Olympics,
I believe it's about bringing people to their feet.
You have to make them feel something.
It is scary
because there's one spot, you have one chance.
What's cool is that I believe
there will be five or six really seasoned,
mentally strong teams,
going for three medals and one title.