olympic ice dance gold medalist Guillaume Cizeron is accusing his former partner of engaging in a smear campaign against him by publishing his new memoir.
Gabriella Papadakis published his memoirs, Not to disappear (Not to disappear), on Thursday January 15. In it, she accuses Cizeron, 31, of being “controlling, demanding, critical” during their time as partners. She added that she eventually refused to skate with him without a coach present and often felt that he was “under her control”.
During the time Papadakis worked with Cizeron, he allegedly experienced “disputes, constant fear, health problems, the feeling of (being under) some form of control.”
Cizeron has defended himself in a statement shared with French media, saying: “In the face of this smear campaign, I want to express my incomprehension and disagreement with the labels attributed to me.”
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“The book contains false information, including statements I never made, which I consider serious,” he continued. “For more than 20 years, I have shown deep respect for Gabriella Papadakis, despite the gradual erosion of our bond, our relationship was built on equal collaboration and marked by mutual success and support.”
Cizeron added that he has ordered his lawyers to “notify all parties involved to immediately cease the dissemination of defamatory statements about me.”
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron
Photo by Pascal GUYOT/AFP via Getty ImagesCizeron and Papadakis, 30, were childhood partners, skating together until 2024. They were Olympic gold medalists in 2022 and won silver at the winter games in 2018 while skating for Team France. They also won five World Championship gold medals between 2015 and 2022.
“In public, we look like best friends,” Papadakis explains in the book, according to a translation. “We joke, we laugh until we cry. However, while there is a certain complicity between us, it fades away as soon as no one is around to observe it.”
The allegations come as Cizeron prepares to skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics alongside a new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry. The ice dance will begin on February 6, the same day as the opening ceremony in Milan.
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Papadakis, meanwhile, has since retired from the competition, but has continued to cover the sport for NBC.
When rumors surfaced in 2025 that Papadakis was quitting competitive skating to focus on performing, she clarified, writing via Instagram: “That didn’t happen. I stopped because the environment I was working in had become deeply unhealthy. I was exhausted, physically and psychologically, and I had to leave to protect myself. I had no choice.”
In addition to detailing her alleged relationship with Cizeron, Papadakis details her early life in her memoirs, which she says included instances of sexual abuse. He also points to the culture around ice dancing, explaining that because it’s designed for the man to lead and the woman to follow, men have the power in the sport.
“I am not suffering because I was sexually abused when I was younger, but because I continue, day after day, to find myself in situations where my body does not belong to me,” she writes. “I am there without really being there, half inhabiting this body that mechanically performs the actions that have been ordered.”