Beijing 2022 was always going to see the last dance for Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, as they ended a career that had spanned over a decade.
When the pair shared an embrace and patted the ice after their final skate, there could be plenty for them to look back upon: three world championship medals, fourth-place disappointment at PyeongChang 2018, an off-ice relationship and subsequent breakup that was accompanied by a commitment to continue skating together.
A medal at the Olympic Winter Games was just about all that had been missing as they headed to China.
Having already won silver with USA in the team event, their score of 218.02 was enough to earn bronze in the ice dance.
“I’m incredibly proud of my teammate,” Hubbell exclusively tells Olympics.com. “We did it in the team event skating our best for everyone involved and today it’s no different.
“We not only skated for each other, but for everyone who had a piece of our preparation, which is too many to name. But feeling incredibly grateful, excited to see our families, go to the medal plaza, have that medal around our neck and what a beautiful way to end our career.”
As had been the case in PyeongChang, Hubbell and Donohue entered the free dance in third, having skated impressively in the rhythm dance – though they had a larger buffer this time.
In 2018, a mistake had seen them slip to fourth, but there would be no issues this time as a strong skate saw the pair make the podium – their compatriots Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished fourth after a mistake in the rhythm dance.
As disappointing as it would have been, their previous fourth-place finish may have played a part in Hubbell and Donohue’s current glory.
“I think after 2018, we took a hard look at what it would mean for us to be on the podium at the Olympics and we chose to come at it from a different side,” Hubbell says. “We wanted to enjoy our training, we wanted to cherish the memories that we would have for the last four years together and build that friendship even deeper. That’s what we’ve done and that allowed us to come here in a different way, relying on our training so much.”
Though she does insist: “We didn’t feel like we needed to prove it to anyone, we just needed to skate as ourselves, our normal day-to-day routine and trust that that was enough. So, we’re just really happy and proud of the work we’ve done.”
French pair Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron lived up to their billing as favourites to win gold, while ROC’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov took silver.
For some, this could leave room to scrutinise the finer details that could have led to a higher ranking medal.
Not for this pair. “As competitors, of course, you always go ‘Oh man, is there something I could have done?’ But I think getting lost in that is just a mistake,” Donohue says.
“We’re definitely in a place of appreciation for what we’ve accomplished today and the way we’ve skated. We’re celebrating not just us but our coaches and other teammates who have all skated amazingly. We’re part of something bigger and we get to take all that energy right now.”
This being their last time on the ice as competitors will only make this medal more special.
As Hubbell puts it: “We were very clear from the start of the season that we wanted to step away.”
She continues: “We’ve got a lot of lovely messages, which I think is a testament to how much work we’ve put in, but I always think it’s better to retire at your peak than to wait until your passion dies out. So, we’re ready to move on now.”
The performance from Hubbell and Donohue in the ice dance means they can now step away from figure skating while celebrating one of the most important moments of their entire career.