A DAY later, the tears were happy.
French ice skaters Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis, who fought through a wardrobe malfunction Monday, took home the silver Tuesday with a record-breaking performance (a record that would last all of 15 minutes, broken by Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won gold).
“I was very emotional,” Papadakis told reporters, via Yahoo Sports. “I cannot really put a word on the way I felt. We just delivered an amazing performance at the Olympics. … We couldn’t have skated better. We did our best. Maybe more than our best.”
Papadakis and Cizeron struggled in their short program Monday after the top of Papadakis’ costume came loose, and were 1.74 points behind the Canadians entering Tuesday’s free dance.
The pair’s ethereal free dance had the audience at the Gangneung Ice Arena clapping and set a new world record for both the free skate — they scored 123.35 and topped the Canadians — and the total score.
Learning from her Monday mistake, Papadakis covered up her upper region for the final.
She was covered up with a high necklines dress, but her backside was exposed instead.
And during rhythmical spins with her partner Guillaume Cizeron, her derrière flashed up on TV cameras instead.
“It wasn’t easy to get back on the ice today but I think we were ready for whatever after what happened yesterday,” Cizeron said. “We were like, ‘Bring it on. We’ll deal with whatever.’ ”
The pair were on course for the gold, after performing a personal best routine to score 123.35, the highest score of the final round.
But it ended on a bum note as they were pipped by the Canadian pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, whose short dance score was less than two points ahead of the French.
The French and Canadians were miles ahead of the chasing pack, with Americans Maia and Alex Shibutani completing the rostrum.
TV chiefs were grilled on social media for showing slow-motion replays of Papadakis’ nip slip, with the Olympic Broadcasting System responsible for airing coverage for other nations.
She was the second skater to suffer a wardrobe malfunction after Yura Min’s Olympic debut was hit by a similar issue.
