Grand Prix de France 2023: Adam Siao Him Fa nails personal best skate to overhaul Ilia Malinin in Angers; Pereira / Michaud surge to maiden win in pairs
Siao Him Fa, the defending champion of the French Grand Prix, put in the free skate of his life to join the 300-point club and overtake short program leader Ilia Malinin. Canada's Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud took pairs glory.
Figure Skating
France's Adam Siao Him Fa successfully defended his figure skating Grand Prix de France 2023 men's title on Saturday (4 November) in a thriller for the ages in Angers, overhauling Ilia Malinin's narrow short program lead with a stunning personal best.
With an expectant crowd hanging onto his every jump, Siao Him Fa produced a free skate packed with four quads.
Of note was a very impressive quad Lutz and Salchow, the picks of his four quads. As the teddy bears and flowers rained down from the audience at the end of his skate, Siao Him Fa took in a standing ovation from all sides of the arena, even performing a backflip as he came off the ice much to the joy and surprise of the crowd.
His 205.71 free skate and 308.78 total laid down a massive marker to Malinin, whose lead entering the free skate was barely half a point. Siao Him Fa became just the sixth man to score a total over 300, and a free skate over 200, under the current judging system introduced in 2018/19.
"It feels great. I still don't realise what happened. The fact that this year's level was so high was so motivating for myself and I really wanted to push myself over my limits and I really enjoyed it tonight," a disbelieving Siao Him Fa said.
"When I started the program I was shaking. But in my mind, I told myself, stop thinking about the competition – just enjoy and connect with the audience, just enjoy to skate with the music and that's it."
Ultimately, two questionable landings from Malinin – on the triple Salchow and quadruple toe loop – meant a very strong 200-point skate of the American's own would not be enough, with Malinin obtaining a total of 304.68 to send the Angers crowd delirious with joy.
Kagiyama Yuma completed the podium in his first Grand Prix in two years, scoring a total of 273.14.
Malinin leaves out quad Axel despite challenge, Kagiyama "frustrated" with mistakes
Malinin was ultimately undone by the two jump elements that earned him negative grades from the judges, while the American's overall performance was also judged to have been less polished, as he scored around three fewer points in the program components score – judging artistry and composition – than Siao Him Fa.
"Overall I'm very happy with my skate today. My main goal with this competition was to have a solid base and qualify for the [Grand Prix] Final and I've achieved that so I'm very happy with my skate here," Malinin said.
Known by his nickname "quad god" for his jumping prowess, the American left out the quadruple Axel once more. The only man to have performed skating's most difficult jump in competition explained on Friday that a devaluation in scoring for the jump meant the risk to perform it outweighed the rewards. Despite the challenge laid down by Siao Him Fa right before him, the American opted against performing the jump, cleanly landing a triple.
"When I was going on the ice I thought it was best not to put it in, knowing that the base value was not worth it to put it in because you could lose even more points from GOE (grade of execution) if you do it badly," Malinin explained in response to a question from Olympics.com.
Kagiyama, third after Friday's short program, was the first of the medal favourites to perform in the free skate. Skating to Rain, In Your Black Eyes, the impact of new artistry coach Carolina Kostner could be seen on the Japanese's program.
There was little to fault in the 20-year-old's expression on the ice, wearing a dark-coloured blue and black outfit that matched the theme of his music. However, two jumps let him down, first popping a planned triple Axel down to a single, followed by a step out on the triple Lutz in a planned combination.
Still, the crowd were in raptures and greeted the end of Kagiyama's routine with a deafening roar, happy to see one of the world's best back after a long injury layoff.
"I feel like I made some mistakes in my performance and I'm frustrated. Seeing the scores, I think I still have a lot to work on to reach the top two. But the other two skaters inspired me a lot and for me to work for the future," Kagiyama said.
Pereira and Michaud overcome fall to win first title
Canada's Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud won their first Grand Prix title in just their second event in their first season on the circuit together.
Leading narrowly after the short program, the Canadians knew the score they needed to target for gold, skating last in the free program. They had already seen Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii falter, and needed around 123 points to take victory.
Despite an early fall on the side-by-side triple toe loop–double Axel–double Axel jump sequence, Pereira and Michaud stuck at it to produce a personal best free skate worth 128.70 points, which also gave them a new personal best total of 194.67.
Conti and Macii totalled 189.46 for silver, while France's Camille and Pavel Kovalev took bronze on 172.88 points.