Michigan duo and three-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates nailed their routine on Wednesday, racking up a combined score of 224.39.
It was a bittersweet day as the French team turned in the highest score, taking over first place, while Chock and Bates took silver.
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Evan’s mother and family were full of mixed emotions after the scores came in on Wednesday.
“Disappointed -- It’s a difficult sport because it’s so subjective,” said Nancy Bates, Evan’s mother. “Still fabulous, they skated beautifully. If somebody was a little better, that’s the way it is.”
When Chock was asked Wednesday evening if she agreed with the judges’ decision, she replied, “It’s out of my control. I executed what I needed to execute and so did Evan, and we did our job, and we’re really proud of how we performed.”
Local 4’s Ty Steele spoke with Chock and Bates on Thursday, Feb. 12, asking how they have been feeling since winning silver and discussing the overwhelming support from Michigan.
“We appreciate the support so much,” said Chock. “We’re so grateful for Detroit and the wonderful upbringing we both had there. I think there’s some really special people in the Midwest, and it’s been an honor to be raised there.”
“We are proud Michiganders,” Bates said. “Although we don’t reside there anymore, we always talked about wanting to move back to Michigan because it’s just the best place in the world, in our opinion. And the support that we received from Detroit and Michigan -- it means the world to us, and we just want to say thank you to everybody.”
“I think we did what was in our control and we put out four of our best skates of our careers on Olympic ice, no less, where we wanted to, and that was our goal, and we accomplished our goal,” said Chock.
“It’s a little bittersweet, honestly,” said Bates. “It’s been a really long road to get to this point, and it takes so much work to get onto that stage, and then to deliver, and we felt like we really did it. The score said otherwise, but like Maddie said, that’s not up to us. We’re in a judged sport. We did the best that we possibly could, and the rest is out of our control.”
You can watch the full interview below:
Local 4’s Ty Steele also spoke with the duo’s mothers. You can watch the full interview below: