Gabriella delivers rivetting show despite dress slip

French figure skater Gabriella Papadakis suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction on Monday, revealing a little more than just her Olympic gold medal ambitions in the ice dance competition.

A heavy title favourite along with partner Guillaume Cizeron, Papadakis's skimpy dress slipped during a raunchy short routine in Pyeongchang to leave little to the imagination of millions of television viewers around the world.

Despite the sartorial setback the French pair were in second place behind Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who smashed the short dance world record.

The mishap happened when Papadakis leaned backwards early on and Cizeron inadvertantly managed to unclip the back of her racy green costume.

Her halter-top, complete with tassles and spangles, edged sideways to offer an unchoreographed flash of her left boob.

The pair were still able to finish as Papadakis tried in vain to keep her chest covered.

And to add insult to injury, the incident was replayed in slow motion on screens at the arena.

The 22-year-old Papadakis left the ice in tears.

"It was pretty distracting, my worst nightmare at the Olympics," she said after drying her eyes.

"I felt it right away and I prayed," added Papadakis.

"I told myself you have to keep going and that's what we did and we have to be proud of ourselves, delivering a great performance with that happening."

Cizeron added: "It's just frustrating to miss a few points because of a costume issue. It is not what we get ready for when we train."

Vancouver 2010 champions Virtue and Moir posted a score of 83.67 points to take a lead of 1.74 into Tuesday's free dance.

Papadakis is not the first figure skater to have a wardrobe fail at these Games.

South Korean Min Yura won the hearts of skate fans on her Olympic debut after bravely battling on after a hook popped on her dress just seconds into her routine in the team short dance.

Focusing on executing her spins with partner Alexander Gamelin, Min had to keep adjusting her flimsy red top to avoid total disaster, winning rich praise from commentators for not getting into a flap.

Both incidents still pale compared to Russian skater Ekaterina Rubleva's full-frontal boob flash at the 2009 European championships when her pink dress slipped down almost to her stomach.

Arguably worse still was British bobsledder Gillian Cooke's display at the 2010 world championships when her bodysuit split as she bent over to push off at the start, allowing her G-string to steal the spotlight.