Grand Prix de France 2023: Isabeau Levito takes title despite messy free skate as leaders struggle, Guignard / Fabbri repeat as ice dance champs
The 16-year-old American finishes only third in the free skating segment but clinches her maiden Grand Prix title; Nina Pinzarrone and Sumiyoshi Rion complete the podium.
Figure Skating
Isabeau Levito is the women's singles champion at figure skating's Grand Prix de France 2023, but surely her victory on Saturday (4 November) did not come in the way she expected.
The American national champion had led by five points from Anastasiia Gubanova after Friday's short program, but needed that margin as the top three from Friday all struggled on the ice in Angers on Saturday.
Levito under-rotated her triple Salchow and also lost points on a triple flip–double toe loop combination, before she struggled on her final spin, missing the change of foot and rendering the element invalid.
As she completed her program, the 16-year-old put her hands on her head, worried she might have blown it. Her free skating score of 131.39 was only third-best, although good enough to propel her to a total of 203.22 points for the win, her first career Grand Prix gold.
"I guess we'll call screwing up the second half of my routine a dramatic finish," Levito laughed. "I'm very happy with the execution of the first half of my program, but I'm glad I got through this and I will definitely be working on this a lot more once I get back to training."
The result means Levito will make it to December's Grand Prix Final in Beijing, People's Republic of China. "I'm very proud I was able to improve from last season result-wise. It was my goal to win one of my Grands Prix at least to really secure that I would make it to the Final. I'm really happy I improved in this aspect."
Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone finished second on 198.80 points, earning a first career Grand Prix medal on her debut, while Japan's Sumiyoshi Rion (197.76) completed the podium with her third Grand Prix bronze in three events.
Gubanova and Lee Hae-in, second and third after the short program, both struggled with big errors in their free skate, dropping to sixth and fourth overall respectively.
Surprise podium behind Levito after favourites' errors
Lee had been the first of the favourites after the short program to go. She was aiming to close the gap to Gubanova and Levito, but was set back by two clear mistakes in her free skate.
First, she took a big step out of and put a hand down on the second jump of her triple Lutz–triple toe loop combination to avoid falling. Then, in the back half of her program, she only singled a planned triple Lutz.
As she completed her Notre Dame de Paris routine, a knowing look of what-could-have-been was etched across the South Korean skater's face. Her 124.66 points only gave her a total of 190.96, dropping her to fourth overall – spared a lower finish by Gubanova's own errors.
The Georgian struggled on her layback spin and step sequence, losing vital points to lower-than-expected levels.
Pinzarrone, who was fourth after the short program, had been clean through her free skate. While not the highest-scoring, the Belgian's consistency between the two programs was enough to see her win her maiden Grand Prix medal.
"I'm obviously super happy and I didn't expect it. It actually doesn't feel real that I'm standing here," a delighted Pinzarrone reflected. "My first competition of the season was really not me, I just went back to training and I knew I needed to do it right at that moment. I'm so relieved, I just needed to show everyone I'm capable of this."
Sumiyoshi, meanwhile, was the only skater to land a quadruple jump – a toe loop – in the segment, which helped her obtain the best free skate score of the afternoon and propel her to a third Grand Prix bronze medal from three events. It was an unlikely finish to her weekend after the Japanese 20-year-old had placed only fifth in the short program.
"Yesterday I made many mistakes but today I fixed the problems and performed as I wanted, so I'm happy," she said. Of her quad toe, she added: "I'm really happy that I landed it cleanly today. I'm trying to make it more stable so I can include it in more competitions."
Ice dance: Guginard / Fabbri triumph in France again
Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri took French Grand Prix gold for the second year running in ice dance, mesmerising a partisan crowd cheering for the Brest-born Guignard.
The Italians scored level threes and fours for all their elements, earning 127.92 points in the free dance for a total of 214.54.
"It feels great, most of all we're very happy about our performance because we felt we improved a lot of things compared to last competition. We've felt since the first practise that we're skating really easy on the ice," Fabbri said.
Canada's Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Nikolaj Sørensen took silver on 205.15, while France had more to cheer with Evgeniia Lopareva / Geoffrey Brissaud finishing third on 190.82.
It was an exact repeat of the podium from this event last year.