Canada is back on the podium in ice dance.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured the bronze medal in ice dance figure skating after the free skate routines on Wednesday.
Gilles and Poirier earned the bronze with a free dance score of 131.56 in their free dance and an overall total of 217.74.
"We're so proud of ourselves," Gilles said to Devin Heroux of CBC Olympics after the medal ceremony. "What a moment we created, and we're so, so incredibly proud of ourselves.
"It takes a village. And, like, half our village is in the crowd right now and to be able to look up and see them celebrating and really living this moment is, it means the world. This is our medal, but also theirs. And same with Canada — they have chosen to support us time and time again, and for us to be able to, like, nail this performance and create something for them, I think, was so, so special."
It is Canada's first medal in figure skating at these Games and Canada's first in ice dance since Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.
The Toronto-based pair have been skating together for 15 years. In that time, they've amassed four Canadian championships, two silvers at the world championships and one Grand Prix Final. This is their first Olympic medal in their third Winter Games, also competing in 2018 and 2022.
"We spend so much of our lives preparing for a competition like this, and, you know, you kind of just have to put aside the weight of it all just to kind of get through the day-to-day, get through the training and just survive each day," Poirier continued. "I think it was so special that we could have a skate like that on Olympic ice."
This is expected to be their final season.
"Thank you for seeing us," Poirier said when asked if there was anything he wanted to say to tie a bow on their 15-year journey. "Thank you for seeing who we are and believing in us and embracing what we are."
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the gold medal, while Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States won silver.
Two other Canadian teams competed in the ice dance competition. Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha placed 10th with a score of 199.80, while Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain le Gac were 14th with a score of 187.18.
