Charlène Guignard

Guignard began learning to skate in 1993.[4] Early in her career, she competed for France. Following partnerships with Christopher Guignard and Goulven Fourdan, she teamed up with Guillaume Paulmier. The two debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series in the 2006–07 season. They finished 18th at the 2008 World Junior Championships and 19th in 2009.

Guignard and Italy's Marco Fabbri found each other on Icepartnersearch[8] and began skating together after a try-out in May 2009.[9] They began competing together for Italy in the 2010–11 season, coached by Barbara Fusar-Poli.[10] They finished fourth in their international debut, at the 2010 NRW Trophy, before winning the bronze medal at the 2010 Golden Spin of Zagreb. The duo took the silver medal at the Italian Championships. In April 2011, they were sent to their first ISU Championship – the 2011 World Championships in Moscow, Russia. They qualified for the free dance and finished 19th overall.

In the 2011–12 season, Guignard/Fabbri repeated as the Italian national silver medalists and placed 11th at their first European Championships in Sheffield, England.

In 2012–13, Guignard/Fabbri debuted on the Grand Prix series, placing fifth at the 2012 Cup of China. Ranked 8th in both segments, they finished 9th at the 2013 European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia . At the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada, they were 16th in the short dance, 15th in the free dance, and 17th overall.

Guignard/Fabbri began the 2013–14 season with a silver medal at the 2013 Ondrej Nepela Trophy and then placed 7th at their sole Grand Prix event, the 2013 Skate Canada International. They were awarded gold at the 2013 NRW Trophy before winning their fourth consecutive national silver medal. In January 2014, they finished 8th at the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary. In February, Guignard/Fabbri represented Italy at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia; they placed 15th in the short dance, 14th in the free, and 14th overall. They had the same final result in March at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, after placing 17th in the short and 12th in the free dance.

Making their Challenger Series (CS) debut, Guignard/Fabbri won the silver medal at the 2014 Ondrej Nepela Trophy. Having received two Grand Prix invitations, they placed sixth at the 2014 Skate America and fifth at the 2014 Trophée Éric Bompard. In December, they were awarded silver medals at the 2014 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb and Italian Championships. The two finished sixth at the 2015 European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, and 12th at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, China.

Guignard/Fabbri placed fourth at both of their 2015–16 Grand Prix events, the 2015 Skate Canada International and 2015 Rostelecom Cup. Turning to the Challenger Series, they won gold medals at the 2015 Warsaw Cup and 2015 Golden Spin of Zagreb.

Guignard/Fabbri defended their title at the 2016 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, and also won the 2016 CS Lombardia Trophy. They placed fourth at both of their events on the 2016–17 Grand Prix, and won their seventh silver medal at the Italian Championships. They placed sixth at the 2017 European Championships, and eleventh at the 2017 World Championships.

The duo began the season with their second straight victory at Lombardia, as well as a silver medal at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb. They placed fifth at both of their Grand Prix assignments, and won their eighth silver medal at the Italian Championships. The two finished ninth at the 2018 European Championships.

Guignard/Fabbri competed at their second Olympics, this time in Pyeongchang, where they placed tenth.[11] They finished the season at the 2018 World Championships, held in their training location of Milan, and placed ninth. Their result, combined with the fourth-place finish of Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, earned Italy three spots at the following year's world championships.

Beginning the season at the 2018 CS Lombardia Trophy, Guignard/Fabbri won their third straight title. Competing at the 2018 Skate America event, they won the silver medal, the team's first on the Grand Prix. Fabbri remarked that the medal "is a great reward for us. We started from zero when Charléne and I started skating together. I had just started ice dance and she didn't have international experience. We are proud of what we have achieved."[12] They won silver at their second event, the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki, as well, despite a fall in the free dance. These results qualified them for the Grand Prix Final for the first time in their careers. At the Final, they placed second in the rhythm dance and third in the free dance, capturing the bronze medal overall.[13]

Following their Grand Prix success, Guignard/Fabbri won the Italian national title for the first time in their career.[14] At the 2019 European Championships, they placed third in the rhythm dance, behind Gabriella Papadakis / Guillaume Cizeron and Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin. Expected medal contenders Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov made serious errors that took them effectively out of contention.[15] Guignard/Fabbri were fourth in the free dance, behind Sinitsina/Katsalapov in third, but won the bronze medal overall. Fabbri opined that the free dance had been "our best performance. Scores don't always well the truth. Sometimes you feel you skated better, but you get less. Sometimes you feel you didn't skate that well and you get more points. This time we felt we skated our best."[16]

Guignard/Fabbri placed eighth at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, and concluded the season as part of Team Italy at the 2019 World Team Trophy.[17][18]

Guignard/Fabbri won their fourth consecutive gold medal at the Lombardia Trophy to begin the season. Shortly afterward, Fabbri injured the tendons in his right hand, and for some time the team contemplated withdrawing from the Grand Prix as a result. However, a week before the 2019 Internationaux de France, the decision was made to compete.[19] They placed third in the rhythm dance, while being the only team to correctly execute all keypoints on the pattern dance.[20] Third in the free dance as well, Fabbri remarked afterward "we didn't think we would have been here until one week ago. We couldn't expect more from this competition."[19] Following the French Grand Prix, Guignard/Fabbri opted to discard their original Paramour-themed rhythm dance in favour of music from Grease. Fabbri attributed the change to a desire for "something more understandable for the audience as well, because the old program had unrecognizable music." They were third in the rhythm dance.[21] They placed fourth in the free dance after Guignard fell on a lift exit, winning their second bronze medal of the Grand Prix season. Fabbri said they had not had as much time to practice the rhythm dance whilst working to change the rhythm dance.[22]

After winning a second national title, Guignard/Fabbri competed at the 2020 European Championships and placed third in the rhythm dance, winning the small bronze medal.[23] They were scheduled to skate last in the free dance, which became a protracted wait following technical issues in assessing the score for penultimate team Papadakis/Cizeron. Placing fourth in that segment, they dropped to fourth place overall.[24] They had been assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[25]

With the coronavirus pandemic affecting international travel, the ISU opted to assign the Grand Prix based primarily on geographic location and Guignard/Fabbri were assigned to the 2020 Internationaux de France. The competition was later cancelled.[26] Instead, Guignard/Fabbri began their season by winning gold at the Third Stage of the Italian Gran Premio, a grand prix competition for Italian skaters hosted by the FISG.[27] A week later, they won their third national title.[28]