Canadian ice dancers Gilles, Poirier claim silver at figure skating worlds for 2nd straight year

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are settling for silver once again, but they hope it serves as a springboard to gold at next year’s Olympics.

For the second straight year, the Canadian ice dancers finished behind American rivals Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who completed a three-peat at the world figure skating championships on Saturday.

“We’re really proud of ourselves,” Gilles told reporters at TD Garden in Boston. “We wanted to be on top of the podium here, so it is a little disappointing, but there’s not much to be disappointed about because we had two wonderful skates.

“We skated with joy, we skated with our hearts. The Olympic Games are coming up and our eyes are still on top of the podium, and silver’s a stepping-stone for us.”

Toronto’s Gilles and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., scored a second-best 130.10 points for their enthralling free dance to Annie Lennox’s version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” totalling 216.45 in their 12th world championships together.

WATCH l Gilles, Poirier skate to silver at world championships:

Chock and Bates tallied a winning total of 222.06, a season’s best, after skating to their jazz medley before a home crowd at TD Garden in Boston. Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson took bronze with 207.11.

The Americans built a 3.74-point cushion over Gilles and Poirier in Friday’s rhythm dance, a large margin by ice dance standards.

WATCH l Chock, Bates win 3rd straight world title:

Gilles and Poirier, both 33, won their fourth world championship medal after also claiming bronze in 2021 and `23.

“We’re really proud of what we accomplished this week,” Poirier said. “Both of our programs felt really strong, and we really feel, as we get to the culmination of the season, that the programs have grown into the programs that we dreamed they would be at the start of the season.”

Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., fell to seventh (200.41) after ranking fifth in the rhythm dance.

The duo was full of joy after performing, but the mood changed in the kiss and cry once they received disappointing scores.

“I really enjoyed it and it felt really good, but at the same time of course we’re disappointed with the result and the score,” Lajoie said. “I’ll need to watch the video, but I’m still really happy with the way we performed and proud of us.”

Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Brossard, Que., were 20th (170.88).

The combined placement of nine from Canada’s top two teams helped the country retain three provisional ice dance spots for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Watch live coverage of the figure skating world championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here’s the full streaming schedule and here are the latest results.

Gilles and Poirier also finished second behind Chock and Bates at last year’s worlds in Montreal, despite winning the free dance.

The four-time Canadian champions edged the Americans at last month’s Four Continents Championships in Seoul, setting up an anticipated showdown at worlds this weekend.

“We are a little bit disappointed to not have won here, that was the objective that we set for ourselves,” Poirier said. “But I think at the same time, we can be very proud of the way that we’ve handled this season.

“We had a really rocky start, and we’ve really come back together through the second half of the season, and so I think we have a lot to be proud of.”

The ice dancers won Canada’s first, and likely only, medal at this year’s worlds. Defending champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps finished fifth in pairs.

Gilles and Poirier began the season with a gold medal at Skate Canada International before two uncharacteristic falls derailed their following two Grand Prix events, including the Grand Prix Final in December.

They bounced back with a stellar second half of the season, winning the Canadian championship and Four Continents gold.

WATCH l Gilles and Poirier reflect on Saturday’s silver-medal performance:

Later Saturday, American star Ilia Malinin was set to compete for his second world championship in the men’s free skate, the final competition of the Boston worlds.

Malinin, the self-proclaimed “Quad God,” posted a whopping 110.41 in Thursday’s short program, 3.32 points ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama in the two-man race for gold.

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., ranked 15th (80.25). The 25-year-old would need to climb into the top 10 to earn Canada a second provisional entry in the men’s event at next year’s Winter Games.

WATCH l Full replay of free dance at worlds: