Figure skating drama is already heating up weeks ahead of the Winter Olympics 2026.
Retired ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis dissed her ex-partner Guillaume Cizeron in her new memoir — and was axed from serving as an NBC analyst for the Olympic Games as a result.
The 30-year-old released “Pour ne pas disparaître (So as Not to Disappear)” on Thursday, in which she took aim at her former colleague as “controlling, demanding” and “critical,” according to Us Weekly.
Cizeron, 31, blasted the book as a “smear campaign” and released a statement sharing his “incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to” him.
“The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious,” Cizeron claimed. “For more than 20 years, I have shown deep respect for Gabriella Papadakis.”
He noted that “despite the gradual erosion of [their] bond,” their partnership “was built on equal collaboration and marked by success and mutual support.”
The duo, who partnered together as children, broke 34 records during their time together and won two Olympic medals — gold in 2022 and silver in 2018.
Papadakis has worked for NBC as an analyst since retiring in December 2025, but the network called her memoir a “conflict of interest” after Cizeron’s lawyers filed a formal notice to cease the “dissemination of defamatory statements” about him.
She was subsequently cut from this year’s Olympics coverage.
“I’m not dealing with it very well, I’ve cried a lot,” Papadakis told L’Équipe (via Associated Press) on Friday. “I was super disappointed because I was just beginning that career as a commentator. … I’m experiencing a feeling of injustice.”
Cizeron, notably, will be competing alongside his new partner, Laurence Fournier Beaudry, but Papadakis claimed, “The publication date was already planned before the announcement of his return.”
Beaudry, who began working with Cizeron in January 2025, has yet to comment on the scandal.
The 2026 Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony kicks off Feb. 6 in Italy, with the ice dancing competition beginning that same day.
Papadakis defended her decision to put Cizeron on blast in a Le Temps interview, published Monday and translated from French.
“I wrote this book for myself, for future generations, and for all the women who have experienced the same thing or worse and who don’t have access to such a platform,” she told the outlet.
“In my current value system, I can’t justify remaining silent,” she added, claiming that she “did not write to accuse but to describe [her] experience.”
Papadakis acknowledged her privilege as a successful skater with a platform, saying, “I’m one of the lucky ones.”
Her boyfriend, Sam Williams, praised the book via Instagram over the weekend.
“Speaking out against the kind of systemic oppression that permeates the world of figure skating takes a kind of bravery and conviction that we need more of in this world,” he wrote on Saturday.
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