Ice Dancers Chock and Bates score historic win at World Championships

Gold Medals for the ice dane couple, Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Long-time ice-dancing pair of Hawaii-born Madison Chock and fiance Evan Bates finally stepped onto the gold medal platform.

Chock, 30 and Bates, 34, became the oldest gold medalists in the event and only the second US pair to win at the Wolds competition held in Saitama, Japan last weekend.

“We wouldn’t be sitting here today without many of those challenges that we faced, not just this season, but through all the many seasons of our career,” said Chock, who was born in Redondo Beach, Calif. and is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent.

“We really persevered and showed a lot of grit, and, I think, maybe our performance today was a little reflection of that — perseverance and grit yet again. That little blip in the middle was so fast and so unexpected."

Despite that uncharacteristic fall in the Saturday's free dance, the Americans were able to score 226.01 points total between free dance and rhythm dance categories.

WATCH:World championships highlights air Saturday from 8-10 p.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.

It's the fourth world medal for the couple, who held their lead from the rhythm dance to top fellow veteran squads Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy (219.85) and Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (217.88), who finished with silver and bronze, respectively.

Chock's and Baes' gold medal skate follows in the footsteps of Sochi 2014 Olympic champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who captured World gold in 2011 and 2013.

"We're elated," a breathless Chock said to the Saitama Super Arena crowd, calling her fall a "boop." While the team lost one point for the mishap and took a dent in their Program Components, their overall technical marks were far superior on the day.

"We've been pursuing this goal for so many years and it just happened 10 seconds ago," added Bates. "It's really hard to put this moment into words and what it means to us. This ice dance field is so competitive; we've known these teams for so long. We're just so happy."

“I don’t know what the next four years will hold,” Chock said referring to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “But we’re committed to each other and our goals, and we’ll decide when the time comes.”

The next big event for the couple is their wedding in the summer of 2024.

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