Adam Siao Him Fa ready to bring "Dune" sandstorm to life after skate-less summer with torn ankle ligaments
Two-time European champion Siao Him Fa had to squeeze his off-season preparation into five weeks after injuring his ankle in the summer. The setback has not dampened his ambition as he wants to bring another memorable sci-fi skate to the ice on the Grand Prix circuit.
Figure Skating
Adam Siao Him Fa may have broken his skates – again – ahead of one of his biggest competitions but fortunately, the worst of his figure skating woes appear to be behind him.
The two-time European champion from France injured his right ankle during the off-season and had to play catch up to make it to the home stage of the Grand Prix.
"During a show in Japan, I had an injury in the practice. I tore my ankle. I ripped the ligament. Then it was cured and then during the summer training camp I injured it again and it got worse," Siao Him Fa said after official training for the Grand Prix de France, which is taking place in Angers, France from 1-3 November, and for which he had to use an old pair of skates as he broke his main pair a day earlier.
"I stopped skating for six weeks. It was a long stop. I haven't skated the whole summer and I re-started to touch the ice only at the end of August. So I'm pretty happy, actually, to do what I do right now. I feel that I came back not at 100 per cent of my shape, but I came back pretty well."
The ankle injury through a curveball into Siao Him Fa's training just as he was coming off a breakthrough 2023-24 season, which saw the French skater win a bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships, defend his European and national men's singles title, and claim back-to-back Grand Prix stages.
Instead of putting his programs together in mid-summer, as he always did, Siao Him Fa had just over a month to train the technical elements and polish off his flow. All this while treading carefully not to re-injure his ankle.
"It's been now five weeks that I re-started to do the program, so it's not so much compared to the other skaters or compared to what I was used to because before I was starting the programs in July," he said. "It's a lot of training that I missed but right now I'm getting my shape back slowly. Almost all my jumps are back. Now I just need to be more consistent and also to just get used to being back on the competition circuit."
Siao Him Fa initially announced that his return to that competition circuit would take place at the Grand Prix de France where he is going for a third consecutive title. But the lure of a home stop on the ISU Challenger Series proved too much to resist.
Casting away any lingering doubts – and a bad cold – the Nice-based skater made a last-minute leap into the Trophy Metropole Nice Cote d'Azur two weeks before the Grand Prix in Angers and claimed his third win in the event.
"I was happy to be back in the competition season. I really missed it," Siao Him Fa said. "I was watching all the competition that started in September, so I was feeling more excited to come back. And now that we start the Grand Prix, I'm feeling really excited."
From "Star Wars" to "Dune": The force is with Adam Siao Him Fa
While Siao Him Fa has not had much time to prepare for the 2024-25 season, it does not mean he has not prepared something special to show to the judges and figure skating fans. Tapping once again into the talents of his long-time choreographer Benoit Richaud and coach Cedric Tour, Siao Him Fa unveiled a new free skate this fall, set to the sci-fi blockbuster "Dune: Part Two".
"In January, Benoit and Cedric watched the movie Dune Two and they sent me the music of the movie and I already liked it. And then I watched the movie and I said, 'Yes, we should totally do a program on Dune Two!" Siao Him Fa said. "It was Benoit's idea. And since even the last season, we agreed to do a program on Dune."
It was a somewhat nostalgic choice for the French skater who had gone viral for another sci-fi program in the past – this one set to "Star Wars" and performed at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games. What made his 2024 "Dune" choice riskier, however, is that it is now a popular choice among a number of skaters.
Not that Siao Him Fa is afraid he will be lost in the crowd.
"It's kind of funny," he said about the surging popularity of the movie's soundtrack among top figure skaters. "But overall, I think we all do something kind of different. Even if it's the same theme of program, we have different arrangements of the music and also different choreography, different styles so each skater brings his own personality."
One of the things that sets Siao Him Fa's program apart is how in sync it is with the music. The skater credits Cedric Tour, who is a composer as well as a coach, for this perfect symbiosis of sound and movement.
Siao Him Fa and Tour have been working together for two years.
"He knows when we create the program where we want which part of the music, so it's easier to create the program and to get what we really want," Siao Him Fa said. "Each part is really in a particular moment of the program."
Adam Siao Him Fa's line-up of broken skates
Tour has been at Siao Him Fa's side for some of the skater's most memorable and successful programs, foreseeing every challenge along the way. Where Tour's powers of preventing calamity end, however, is Siao Him Fa's remarkable habit of breaking skates.
The French skater had to dust off an old, reserve pair for his training at the Grand Prix de France on Thursday, 31 October after he broke the original pair a day earlier.
The high-jumping and fast-spinning Siao Him Fa has also broken his skates at the European Figure Skating Championships and the Cup of China in 2023.
"That’s the remake," he joked about reverting to his skate-breaking ways in Angers. "Maybe I put too much strength in my skates. But also, it's been a while that I skated with those pair so it's kind of normal."
As long as the skates stay intact during Siao Him Fa's program at the Grand Prix de France, expect more unforgettable skates from the defending title holder.