Ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis kept going despite wardrobe malfunction at the Winter Olympigcs

French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis, 22, is a Silver Medalist, a four-time European champion, a two-time World champion, a three-time Grand Prix final medalist, and a three-time French national champion.

In the 2018 Winter Olympics, Gabriella and her partner, Guillaume Cizeron, had a quite notable performance due to a wardrobe malfunction. The mishap occurred when Gabriella leaned backwards early on and Cizeron inadvertently managed to unclip the back of her green bedazzled dress. Her breast was exposed to millions of Olympic viewers worldwide as a result. Not only did this prevent the pair from gaining maximum points on the skill but according to Gabriella.

“It was my worst nightmare at the Olympics. I told myself ‘you have to keep going.’ That’s what we did, and we have to be proud of ourselves, delivering a great performance with that happening,” she said after the performance.

Nevertheless, Papadakis’ persistence to finish the program was admired by viewers. The pair also refused to stop their program because they realized they had to continue performing if they wanted to win a medal. If they had paused to fix the top, the judges would have been forced to deduct points. To explain under rule 503, paragraph two, it states that for every interruption of more than 10 seconds, up to 20 seconds, skaters are deducted 1.0 points.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron scored 81.93 points putting them in 2nd place despite the mishap. By refusing to stop performing despite the misfortune, Gabriella showed immense commitment and determination to the sport.