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.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Olympics 2022: Ice dancing pair skate for a medal tonight

Ice dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock are in contention for an Olympic medal.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the reigning U.S. skating ice dance champions, finished within striking distance of an Olympic medal.

After the rhythm dance event, Hawaiian Chinese American Chock and her partner are in fourth place behind their American rivals, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Dononhue.

A skating error hurt Chock and Bates in their latest run, but they remain in the hunt for a medal with their overall performance, with their strongest routing, the long freestyle, coming Sunday evening.

During one dance sequence, Chock had a slight bobble when she nearly lost her edge, which cost the team a some points.

"In general, it was a bit of a fight," Chock said. "But there were also a lot of fun moments where we were just dancing to the music. So overall, we had to work for it today but we're very proud of what we put out."

While it is unlikely the pair will catch the French team of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron who set a new event record with a score of 90.83, a tremble here or a misstep there by the Russian team or their American teammates, could vault Chock and Bates into the top three for a silver or a bronze.

Giving hope to Chock and Bates was their outstanding performance in the team competition held earlier in the Olympics. Chock and Bates received a higher score than the world champion Russian team, which allowed the American team to win a silver medal, their highest placement since 2014 when the team event was introduced to the Olympics. In 2014 and 2018, the American team won bronze medals.

After Saturday's competition, the standings are:

1. Gabriella Papadakis / Guillaume Cizeron (FRA): 90.83

2. Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov (ROC): 88.85

3. Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue (USA): 87.13

4. Madison Chock / Evan Bates (USA): 84.14

5. Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Burkin (ROC): 84.0

The chemistry Chock and Bates share on the ice could be that they are a pair off the ice, as well. They didn’t start as high school sweethearts even though they were only 30 miles apart, but the two ended as partners on and off the ice a decade later.

The ice dancing pair went to high school 30 miles apart outside of Detroit. The decade-old partnership began at age 21 in 2011. However, it wasn’t until 2017 that the two started a relationship off the ice.

While Chock and Bates were not satisfied with their performance, in a television interview with Andrea Joyce, Chock added, "It's not over yet."

The free dance begins Sunday night at 8:15 p.m. on USA Network before moving to NBC. Fans can follow Team USA on the competition central page on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.

RELATED:

Nathan Chen, Chloe Kim win gold medals in their events.

Eileen Gu evades question about citizenship after winning gold medal

US wins silver in figure skating team event

Born and raised in San Francisco, Eileen Gu will represent China

Five AAPI skaters named to USA Figure Skating team.

NBC puts Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim in the spotlight to promote their coverage

Snowboarding star Chloe Kim: "I'm going to go off"

20 Asian Americans and Asian Canadians to watch at the Winter Olympics

Emotions flood over Chinese American athletes in Beiging Games

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.