Amelia Gioia is an editorial intern for TODAY.com based in New York City. She has an interest in pop culture, entertainment and general news coverage. Amelia is a life-long New Yorker, loves Greek mythology and has run two half marathons.
Partners on and off the ice, U.S. Olympians Madison Chock and Evan Bates are the dream ice dancing duo. The three-time and reigning world champion ice dancers first met as teenagers while skating in Michigan, per Team USA.
com. They began their official skating partnership in 2011 and started dating five years later. The pair is competing at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics together. They have already won gold this season for the Team USA figure skating team event with famed American skaters including Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, and more. They also revisited their relationship and career story in the new Netflix documentary, 'Glitter and Gold.' The 2026 games will be the pair's fourth Olympics as partners. The one thing missing from their resume is an individual Olympic gold, which they hope to achieve this year. Together, they are three-time world champions and seven-time national champions, per USFigureSkating.org. 'It's the ultimate prize for us in our sport. We've prepared as best as we could. We are so ready,' Bates told TODAY in 2026 about the prospect of gold at the 2026 Olympics. Read on for more about Bates and Choke's relationship ahead of the pair ice dancing event at the Olympics. They Met as Teenagers in Michigan At 12, Chock moved to Michigan from her home state of California to pursue skating more seriously. “I was 12 at that time, and that is a lot of faith to put in a 12-year-old,” Chock told USFigureSkating.org in 2021. “I’m very fortunate to have such incredible parents who have sacrificed their time and their hopes to succeed at my dream. It was there that she first met Evan Bates, an Ann Arbor, Michigan native and her future partner. In June 2011, when she was 19 years old, Chock began her partnership with Bates. They Went on 1 Date as Teenagers, But Started Dating Years Later For Chock's 16th birthday in 2008, the couple went to Bahama Breeze for a date, they remembered to TODAY in 2023. 'Evan took me out to dinner for my 16th birthday to Bahama Breeze,' Chock said. The romance fizzled out, though, as their ice skating partnership grew. “It was only when we started skating together that we started spending a lot more time together. We started this bond and friendship that eventually grew to a romance,” Bates said. Then, in 2016, Bates confessed his feelings. 'It took five years before I came forward and expressed my feelings and wanted to be more than skating partners. When that eventually did happen, some of our friends around us, were like, 'Duh,'' he said. Chock remembers her own POV: 'That's interesting. I feel the same way about you,' she remembered thinking to TODAY. They Went Public With Their Relationship Ahead of the 2018 Olympics After a year of romance, the pair decided to make their relationship public. In 2018, Bates told TODAY’s Craig Melvin that he “pretty much just told Madi that loved her.” “Skating together is something that we love doing, and we love doing it together,” Chock told NBC when she confirmed the dating rumors. “Now, we’re together on and off the ice and it makes it even more powerful. It feels completely genuine and real ... it brings us closer together every day.” Bates Proposed in June 2022 On a trip to Phuket, Thailand, Bates popped the question. 'We were on vacation with friends and they all knew I was going to do it so they stayed out of the way until afterward, then they joined us for champagne and Thai food on the beach,' Bates told People. 'It was a perfect day, rain included!' They Got Married in 2024 After 20 years of friendship and 10 years of romance, the pair officially got married in a storybook ceremony in 2024. The wedding was located in Hawaii, where Chock's parents met. Chock's father is of Chinese-Hawaiian descent, per NBC. Chock posted several times to Instagram to celebrate the occasion. In one post, she shared a video of the newlyweds dancing at sunset. 'Sunset dance as husband and wife 🌅' she captioned the post. How Their Romance Impacts Their Skating The couple says that their romantic relationship has only helped grow their on-ice partnership. “Knowing that we have made the ultimate commitment to be partners for the rest of our lives, we understand how grateful and lucky we are to do what we love with the person we love,' Bates told TODAY in 2026.
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