Evan Bates and Madison Chock suffered a devastating fall during their Winter Olympics ice dance long program Tuesday, breaking the hearts of many on social media, reported MLive.com.
While the American team of Maia and Alex Shibutani won the bronze medal in the competition, social media appeared to be pulling for Bates and Chock, a couple on and off the ice, the website said.
Team Chock and Bates, though, suffered a rare and stunning fall entering their combination spin during their performance to John Lennon's "Imagine," virtually eliminating them from medal contention, MLive.com wrote.
But the Michigan-based couple got up and completed the performance, drawing an emotional applause, MLive reported.
"Everybody’s looking at us like we’re injured puppy dogs," Bates said, according to USA Today. "I think we just clicked blades entering the spin and it's really impossible to spin with that kind of friction. One moment things were going exactly how we wanted them to and the next moment, in a flash, disaster struck. There's no other way to put it."
Chock fought back tears after the program, seeing the hope of a medal slip away with one mistake, the newspaper said.
"It's just so fresh," Chock said, per USA Today. "I'm really proud of how we recovered and got up and just still can't believe it happened. As soon as it happened, I said, 'My God, our butts are on the ice where our skates are supposed to be.' We've worked so hard this season to kind of reinvent ourselves."
Their love story was featured in publications like Cosmopolitan before the Olympics, going out on their first date nearly 10 years ago.
Social media shared their anguish after the competition.
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