France's extremely talented and extremely controversial ice dancers, explained

When Olympic ice dance pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron take to the ice on Wednesday, they'll do so as the favorites for gold.

The French duo currently leads the pack with a score of 90.18, a slim margin over the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and roughly 4 points ahead of Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. And Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron's free dance, the concluding, longer skate of the multi-day competition, is considered one of the sport's best this season.

A victory would be a triumph for the relatively new pair, as ice dancing is often characterized as a sport where years-long partnerships tend to rule the podium...