Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue win bronze in ice dancing for Team USA

Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue will leave Beijing, and their final ice dancing competition, with one last Olympic medal.

Hubbell and Donohue posted a tremendous 130.89 in the free skate portion of the ice dancing final on Monday in Beijing, which pushed them into first place with a score of 218.02.

While that lead didn’t hold — both Russia and France eventually surged ahead — Hubbell and Donohue did just enough to win a bronze medal for Team USA.

France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Gizeron, who entered as the gold medal favorites, won with a score of 226.98. Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov took silver with 220.51.

Monday’s final marked the fifth straight Olympics where an American team has medaled in the event.

Hubbell and Donohue entered the day in third place after scoring 87.13 in the rhythm dance on Saturday. Their run on Monday to close out their careers was about as good as it could possibly get.

They took the ice immediately after teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates — who recorded their best-ever performance in the event. Chock and Bates, who entered Monday in fourth place, set a personal best with a 130.63 in the free dance to briefly jump into first place. Hubbell and Donohue then finished 3.25 points ahead of them.

Hubbell and Donohue narrowly missed a medal at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, where they took fourth. Chock and Bates finished ninth in South Korea that year after they both fell in the competition.

The third American team who competed on Monday, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, finished in 11th.