American ice dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock skated to some season’s best on Monday (Sunday night stateside) within their first routine at the 2018 Winter Olympics, ending in seventh spot to advance to the event’s second half on Tuesday.
It was, with that said, an energetic performance to be proud of, Bates later told reporters – in addition to anything else because Chock has for months been dealing with a foot injury that flared up again throughout their warmup, minutes before they took the ice.
“We just were built with a weird moment” when Bates was lifting Chock, she said afterward. “It was the exact same thing that people did that originally injured my foot, and thus that was just type of traumatic.”
“I think considering everything, taking into consideration the stumble in the warmup and also the pain that Maddie’s competed in, it’s incredible,” Bates, 28, said of their 75.45 result, which trailed American teammates Zach Donohue and Madison Hubbell and Alex and Maia Shibutani.
“We’ll definitely take that performance and that score to check out a special performance tomorrow,” he said.
Her injury,?Chock, 25, explained to several reporters following their short dance, is definitely an “osteochondral lesion within my foot.”
Basically: “There’s a loose bone fragment that’s in the joint that simply has been locked in through the cartilage right now,” she said. “And so when that happens [the moment within the warmup], it kind of just jostles it more and it simply doesn’t feel very good.”
“But I’ve been dealing with it all season therefore it is really no different,” she said. “I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, just maybe a little extra ice and PT today.”
Chock, that has reportedly been dating Bates for about two years, stressed that the discussion of her foot injury – which had been largely kept private – wasn’t and wouldn’t become their focus. But she conceded to reporters that they was at pain after competing on Monday.
“This isn’t good to say, however i guess I’m accustomed to it at this point,” she tells PEOPLE after being asked how much pain she felt while in the rink.
“Really before it happened, like, I’ve been feeling pretty good, weren’t hurting,” Chock says. “But I’ve got a feeling it will be very sore a bit later today.”
As Bates recalled, Chock first was hurt last summer “right before” an exercise camp.
“We did the identical movement [that they later did in the Olympic warmup] and Maddie suffered the injury,” he explained. “And at that time we weren’t even sure if we were likely to be able to do the Grand Prixs,” talking about a global number of competitions.
But Chock “taped up every day, she’s gotten?cortisone shots and she’s been really quiet about it and just been so tough and so resilient and skating so well,”?Bates said. “And then we literally did it [the move that caused the injury] with Ten seconds left on the five-minute warmup in the Olympics, and it’s just one of those activities you cannot even write or imagine.”
Even so, backstage before they competed, “I just knew Maddie was going to skate well, and she or he did, and that’s just a proof of her character,” Bates said.
He did not know throughout their short dance that Chock was hurting – something she effectively concealed both in the cameras and the audience.
“We didn’t want almost anything to take away from your programs this season,” Chock told reporters of why they have previously not discussed her injury.
“It’s an Olympic year, we didn’t want that to become a focus,” she said. “We knew it would probably surface eventually, because it has, but it definitely isn’t the focus. I am talking about, still, it will not be the focus because I’ve been dealing with it all season and absolutely nothing can change. We’ll still skate a great free program and become ready to go. [I have] an excellent team around me and a great support system right next to me, so it’ll be fine.”
Bates and Chock certainly had other activities to discuss, together with a color-streaked feathered costume she wore that she said was inspired through the red and blue macaw. “It’s this type of lively theme [in the ice dancing event] and that we wanted to embody that in the way we felt and in our costumes,” she said.
Yes, Chock said, she was at a “little bit” of pain after competing, while talking to the press. “But it’s okay,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”
They had a later date of competition – the free dance – to consider.
“It feels great,” Chock said of going back to the wintertime Games, where they competed in 2014. “It feels great to be Olympic ice.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics are airing live on NBC. To find out more, visit?teamusa.org.
