Adam Siao Him Fa crowned men's 2023 European figure skating champion
The Frenchman earns his first career ISU Championships medal with gold in Espoo, while Italy's Matteo Rizzo and Switzerland's Lukas Britschgi complete the podium.
Figure Skating
France's wait for a men's European figure skating champion is over. Adam Siao Him Fa ended his country's 12-year drought on Friday (27 January), clinching gold at the 2023 ISU European Championships in Espoo, Finland.
Siao Him Fa, who turns 22 next Tuesday, is the first Frenchman since Florent Amodio in 2011 to win the continental crown.
The 21-year-old from Nice took a 10-point lead into Friday's free skate from the short program, and made full use of his advantage after Italy's Matteo Rizzo had laid down a strong marker right before him.
Siao Him Fa's skate was not clean, having turned out of a quadruple Salchow and fallen on the following quadruple toe loop. However, he rode the rest of his program, including an eye-catching quad toe-double toe combination, to a free skate score of 171.24 for a total of 267.77 points.
"I'm really proud about tonight, right now I cannot (believe) it but it feels great," the Frenchman said rink-side after his skate, before adding that he had heard the crowd's reaction to Rizzo's skate right before but "I tried to stay focused on myself and to stay in my bubble."
Rizzo won the free skating segment small gold medal, having out-scored Siao Him Fa with a 173.46 season's best. The Italian was very impressive and did not let an error on his opening quad toe disrupt the flow of the rest of his routine.
Skating to Bruno Mars's Talking to the Moon, Rizzo nailed the remainder of his jumping passes, notably a very impressive triple Axel-double Axel jump sequence.
At the end of his program, the 24-year-old let out a roar of emotion on the ice before breaking down in tears, in disbelief at returning to the European podium for the first time since he won bronze in 2019.
His total score was 259.92, nearly 12 points ahead of surprise bronze medallist Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland.
The Swiss had the only clean routine of the final skating group, earning positive grade of execution scores for all 12 of his elements in the program.
That was sufficient for an unexpected medal as he saw both France's Kévin Aymoz and Latvia's Deniss Vasiljevs – who had been ahead of him after the short program – make somewhat unforced errors in their routines.
Aymoz stepped out of a triple Axel, losing his combination – the double toe he added to it was marked as an invalid element – while Vasiljevs saw his opening quad Salchow attempt downgraded and his choreographic sequence receive no score.
Daniel Grassl finished sixth after an error-strewn free skate of his own.
Earlier, Italy's Grand Prix Final medallists Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii clinched pairs gold in a new personal best score of 195.13 ahead of teammates Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini.
2023 ISU European Figure Skating Championships – Men's final result
- Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA), 267.77
- Matteo Rizzo (ITA), 259.92
- Lukas Britschgi (SUI), 248.01
- Kévin Aymoz (FRA), 240.92
- Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT), 236.35
- Daniel Grassl (ITA), 230.83
- Nika Egadze (GEO), 220.65
- Mihhail Selevko (EST), 218.30