It seems ice dancing has more stringent standards over conflicts of interest in their announcing than the NFL does.
Earlier this month, NBC released its full roster of 82 personalities who will cover the 2026 Winter Olympics form Milan Cortina. Among them was 2022 ice dancing gold medalist Gabriella Papadakis. The French star won gold at the last Winter Olympics with partner Guillaume Cizeron. Papdakis was set to work this year’s Olympics as an ice dancing analyst for NBC, with whom she has commentated several events recently.
However, according to Sportico, those plans have changed.
NBC is removing Gabriella Papadakis from its 2026 Winter Olympics coverage just weeks before the event begins because of her recently released book in which she slams her former partner.
“We respect Gabriella’s right to tell the story of her life and career. At the same time, her new book creates a clear conflict of interest. Our responsibility is to deliver coverage that our audience can trust to be free of bias—whether actual or perceived—and we regret that is no longer possible given the circumstances,” NBC said in a statement to the online outlet.
The new memoir from Papadakis claims that Cizeron was controlling as a teammate. The pair had won Olympic gold and silver as well as five world championships as a pairing. Cizeron will compete in Milan Cortina with a new teammate in Laurence Fournier Beaudry. He has called the allegations in the book a “smear campaign.”
Questions around conflicts of interest are nothing new in sports broadcasting. We have seen Tom Brady continue his work as a lead NFL analyst for Fox while taking a very active role as part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Troy Aikman has been doing offseason work helping out the front office of the Miami Dolphins alongside his job at ESPN.
But given the personal nature of the feud between Papadakis and Cizeron, it’s probably in the best interests of NBC to have the ice dancing analyst sit this one out.
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