As the 2026 Winter Olympics kicks off in Italy, Team USA is placing gold medal hopes on ice dancers Madison Chock and her husband, Evan Bates.
Five of the six Olympians who stood on the podium in 2022 have since retired, leaving the field wide open in 2026, and Madison – the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in the team event, alongside Evan – is considered the frontrunner.
Ice dancing is a discipline of figure skating that draws from ballroom dancing, and Madison and Evan have become three-time World champions (2023, 2024 and 2025), three-time Grand Prix Final champions (2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26), three-time Four Continents champions (2019, 2020, and 2023); and seven-time U.S. national champions (2015, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026).
But who is Madison’s ice dance partner, and husband Evan?
© Getty ImagesEvan’s early years
Evan Bates, 36, was born in Michigan and began skating at age four as single skater, performing at the junior level before he began training with ice dancing coaches Yuri Chesnichenko and Yaroslava Nechaeva. In 2000, he began skating with Emily Samuelson, and the pair rose through the junior levels internationally, and nationally at the senior levels over the next decade.
In September 2010, Evan was struck by Emily’s blade as they came out of a lift, and his Achilles tendon was injured, forcing the pair to miss the entire 2010–2011 season. They ended their partnership in June 2011.
© Getty ImagesPartnership with Madison
Weeks later Evan announced his new partnership with Madison, 33, and from California.
“When I first met Madi, I vividly remember this bright California girl coming into this cold rink in Michigan and lighting the place up with her smile,” Evan shared in the Netflix documentary Glitter and Gold.
“When we started skating, I remember the impression being strong: I like this person, I am having a lot of fun.”
On-ice romance
In 2017, after six years of their on-ice partnership, Evan made the bold move to tell Madison he was in love with her.
“It was honestly not on my radar at all,” said Madi. “When he told me, and I sat with it, I was like, ‘Oh wait, let me think about how I feel, and actually, I do have feelings for you, I feel the same way and this is crazy.'”
© Getty Images for USOPCEvan proposed in 2022 during a visit to Phuket, Thailand, and the pair tied the knot in 2024 at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel in Waikiki in June 2024.
Madison’s parents were born and raised in Hawaii, making it a meaningful way to honor her heritage, with the pair also taking part in a lei exchange.
“The leis represent unity and the coming together of separate elements to make a whole greater than the sum of its parts,” Madison told People. “In marriage, you come together as individuals to create a partnership together.”
© AFP via Getty ImagesTeam US Champions
The pair made their Olympics debut at the 2014 Sochi Games where they finished eighth.
Over the next decade they honed their partnership, becoming the 2015 US national champions, and the Four Continents champions in 2019. They went on to become national champions in 2020 and have won every year for the last five years.
They have also been named World champion and Grand Prix Final champions for the last three years in a row.
© Getty ImagesIn 2022, they came fourth at the Beijing Olympics and nearly hung up their skates. “It was hard in that moment to commit to another four years after that Olympics,: said Evan. “But in my heart, I think I knew we weren’t done.”
Evan revealed in Glitter and Gold that he had battled back and neck pain for years, and before the 2026 Olympics he told press that there was “mileage on the body”.
“So many athletes go out on centre ice and put on a strength that maybe fans don’t see,” he added.
Read the full article here
