Ice skating veterans Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their first ice dancing world title after 12 years of competing together Sunday.
NBC Sports reports they are the oldest champions in the event and just the second U.S. pair to win.
Chock called the energy from the crowd in Saitama, Japan “magical.”
“It really propelled us through the program and gave us so much energy it was incredibly fun,” she said at a post-competition news conference, reported Olympic Figure Skating.
RELATED: Chock & Bates win 4th national title
The gold medal follows their national title win in January. The pair is scheduled to get married in the summer of 2024.
They have not committed to continuing competing. After one dozen years of competition, they are looking back at their long career.
“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,” Chock said to NBC Sports. “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.”
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