Olympic gold medalist Evan Bates to perform at Detroit Tree Lighting

To an Ann Arbor resident, proud son of Ann Arbor, Evan Bates, Olympic gold medalist, two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time Olympic medalist. Evan, how are you doing? I'm great. Thank you for having me. It's an honor. Look, man, it's been great to follow your career. You've been competing on the Olympic stage for about, what, 16 years? Does it feel like it's been 16 years? Thank you. It's been a long time. I've been really blessed to have a long career and to get to skate with my wife, Madison Chock, a fellow Michigander as well, graduate of Novi High School. We're thrilled. We've had a great run, capped it off this year in Milan with a gold and a silver medal, and we couldn't be more thrilled. I got to ask you, before we get into Olympic talk, ice dancing talk, you're from Ann Arbor. We know it's Michigan-Michigan State this weekend, so are you excited at all? Because it's kind of been a little lukewarm of a reception this weekend. I'm very excited about it. I think, you know, Tommy Carr taking the helm and see what he's done the last couple of weeks has been really excited. We needed the shot in the arm. I think also, though, with Kyle Whittingham, I mean, you got to give some time to adjust. It's a big head coaching job. It's a big adjustment coming over from Utah. So I think we're headed in a good direction. And I mean, rivalry weekend, we couldn't be more excited about it. See, this is the kind of response I appreciate, because we haven't really been getting a lot of that all week here as we've been in our little own bubble. But, hey, man, I appreciate that. So, look, you competed earlier in the Olympics this year. What is next? What do you do now? Because, like I said, you said this has been a good run. So what are you up to now? So Maddie and I are still skating. We actually were just on the ice this morning. We're getting ready for some shows we have coming up. We're actually going to be performing at the Detroit Tree Lighting Ceremony on November 20th in downtown Detroit. Come on out. It's going to be incredible. It's going to get everybody into the holiday spirit. And we've got a couple other shows coming up. We're usually on tour with Stars on Ice for a few months a year where you can see some of the best skaters in the country come right to your backyard. I don't know whether we'll be playing Detroit and Little Caesars this year. I've got my fingers crossed. We haven't been in Detroit for a few years, so I think we're definitely due, but lots of exciting skating shows on the horizon. Look, I know that you've been all over the world and, you know, ice skating is taking you to places that many people can dream of. And I know you appreciate that. But what is it like to just perform in front of the home crowd here in Detroit? There is nothing like it. And when I was thinking about what it is that I love so much about Michigan, it's 100% the people. It's the community. It's that Midwestern, grounded, welcoming, warm vibe that you get from everyone in the community when you're in Michigan. And I've been lucky to travel all over the world. Like you said, we've been everywhere from Milan to Beijing and back again. But anywhere we are, we're always Calling Michigan home. We're always leaning on those Michigan roots that were laid when we were young and just cutting our teeth. So, so excited to get back and get out in front of a Detroit audience. I hope everybody bundles up. It's going to be maybe a little bit cold, but we're going to bring the holiday spirit for sure. So I know I've only been here for a few years, but have you performed at the tree lighting before? Never. This is our first time. So excited. Yeah. First time. Give me a sense of how you're feeling as you're preparing for this. It's great because, you know, the fact that it's a show and that it's a holiday show means we can be a little bit more creative with what we're going to do on the ice. So we were at the rink this morning. We were having fun with some props, with some storytelling and some of the stuff that you might not be able to do on competitive ice at the Olympic Games. So we're going to have some fun and we're going to be doing multiple performances there. So definitely come out and check it out. Hey, Evan, we appreciate your time, man. We look forward to seeing you and Madison at the tree lighting ceremony. And hey, until then, keep practicing and we'll see you soon. Oh, can I just say one more thing is just, you know, we've been, we've been so grateful to the community in Michigan and particularly when it comes to Henry and Stella, our two toy poodles who my parents have right now in Ann Arbor and taking great care of them. I want to give a big shout out to my parents and I want to give a big shout out to Premier Pet Supply in Livonia, Michigan, who welcomed us and Henry and Stella just last week, they stocked us up on Nulo treats, which is the brand that we choose to feed our dogs with. And Mike Palmer out there at Premier Pet Supply took great care of us. So we want to say thanks to them and we'll see you soon. Yeah, Mike Palmer is a great dude. We've had him here on the show plenty of times. And yeah, I'm glad that he hooked you guys up. Evan, look, enjoy your weekend and go blue. Go blue. Thank you. Evan Bates, his wife, Madison Chalk. He'll be figure skating down at the tree lighting ceremony coming up.