Wednesday was an emotional night for Evan Bates of Team USA.
Bates and his wife, Madison Chock, gave what they believed was a gold medal-winning performance in Milan, Italy, at the Winter Olympic Games during their free dance routine.
They put their heart and soul into the performance, and the crowd agreed once they were done. After an emotionally draining display of skating skill and art, the two watched on as it wasn’t enough to topple France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.
Fans were outraged. Even fellow skaters in the same competition were confused at the result, thinking that the American pair had done enough to win.
Instead of frustration or anger, the married couple broke down in tears after giving it their all on the ice rink.
Although they both won gold medals in the team event at Beijing 2022 and, most recently, this past weekend, the three-time world champion ice dancers are still searching for their first ice dance gold at the Olympics.
“We really did our best,” Bates said after needing to compose himself in an interview with PEOPLE. “And I think that is something that we’ll try to remember and focus on most right now, is that we really did our best.”
While the two didn’t delve too much into it, the night’s competition ultimately centered on the judging. The French judge had Beaudry and Cizeron eight points higher than the Americans in the free dance, the largest gap of any evaluator.
“I feel like life is sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way, and that’s life, and that’s sport, and it’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport, but I think one fact that is indisputable is that we delivered our best,” he said. “We skated our best. And the rest is not up to us, but I think that’s — we felt like we were very close. We felt like we skated a winning performance.”