Ice Dancing Duo Suffered a 'Nightmare' Wardrobe Malfunction & Still Won Silver
Flashy, eye-catching costumes are as much a part of Olympic ice dancing as solid song choices and twizzling. But one outfit in particular caused quite a stir over the weekend in PyeongChang when half of a French ice dancing duo suffered a "nightmare" wardrobe malfunction in the middle of their routine, leaving her a bit exposed.
Incredibly, the pair still managed to deliver a spectacular performance, eventually nabbing the silver medal.
On Sunday (United States time), French figure skater Gabriella Papadakis and partner Guillaume Cizeron were skating their short dance program when a clasp on the neck of Papadakis's fringed green outfit snapped, leaving her breast partially exposed and causing NBC to broadcast only wider shots of the remainder of the program, and carefully edit replays to obscure the incident. And even though the star skater felt the dress mishap happen immediately, she did her best to push through unfazed.
“I felt it right away and I prayed,” she said, according to The Guardian. “It was pretty distracting, kind of my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics. I told myself: ‘I don’t have a choice. I have to keep going.’ And that’s what we did. I think we can be proud of ourselves being able to deliver a great performance with that happening.”
The unfortunate incident left Papadakis, 22, understandably upset, as she was seen crying following the performance in the media interview area. However, her poise and grace through the whole episode drew an outpouring of support on Twitter.
Despite the setback, the pair pulled off a record-breaking performance the following day during the long program, earning a score of 123.35 for the segment -- the highest in Olympics history. That was enough for them to make it to on the podium to nab a silver medal (Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold), but Cizeron couldn't help but feel as though the costume snafu prevented them from winning top honors.
"If we had more points yesterday, we would probably be in first place,” he said, per Yahoo! Sports. “But that’s sports."
The wardrobe issue, the second high profile one of this year's Winter Games after South Korean skater Yura Min's dress came undone last week, sparked conversation among figure skating outfit designers about the importance of ensuring every outfit element will will hold through the entire performance ahead of time.
"Sometimes the costumes just get pulled so hard that you have to really take care of the materials that you’re using and how it’s put together,’’ Lisa McKinnon, a costume designer who's provided outfits for US skaters told USA Today Sports. "One hook is not going to do it.’’
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