Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron of France break their own ice dance world record to win gold at Beijing Olympics

BEIJING — Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France broke their own ice dance world record Monday, winning the Olympic gold medal that narrowly eluded them four years ago in Pyeongchang.

The last figure skaters on the ice for the free dance, Papadakis and Cizeron scored 136.15 points for their performance to “Elegie” by the early 20th century French composer Gabriel Faure. That gave them 226.98 points, beating their previous mark of 226.61 set at the 2019 NHK Trophy in Japan, and easily enough to hold off Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.

The Russian world champions took silver with 220.51 points while the longtime American duo of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who already have announced their plans to retire, claimed bronze in their final Olympics.

Another set of Americans, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, finished just off the podium in fourth place.

One of the earliest pairings on the ice was Gleb Smolkin and Diana Davis, the daughter of embattled Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze, whose star pupil Kamila Valieva was awaiting a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on whether the heavy favorite to win Olympic gold in the women’s program would be allowed to compete Tuesday night.

Tutberidze watched from an inconspicuous corner of Capital Indoor Stadium during her daughter’s performance.

“Diana feels more calm when Enteri supports her because, first of all, she’s her mom,” Smolkin said. “I think for everyone, it’s a great feeling when your family is right here, right behind you.”

Three couples separated themselves from the field on Saturday night, the first night of ice dance, when Papadakis and Cizeron broke their own rhythm dance world record. Sinitsina and Katsalapov were less than two points back while Hubbell and Donohue, riding a personal-best score to their “Rhythm Nation” program, kept their golden hopes alive heading into Monday.

Still, there were some soaring performances before those three teams took the ice.

The…