Grand Prix Final 2023: Isabeau Levito to quickly turn page on forgettable night in Beijing
Despite an unexpectedly marred short program, the 16-year-old American will turn her sights to the free skate with hopes of a big-time bounce-back.
Figure Skating
Not the start Isabeau Levito was hoping for.
After a sparkling 2023-24 season so far, that saw her become the first American to win a figure skating Grand Prix event since Ashley Wagner, the 16-year-old went into Friday’s (8 December) women's short program of the ISU Grand Prix Final 2023 in Beijing locked and loaded.
But whether it was pressure or the cold-like symptoms she was nursing, Levito popped her opening jump, a double lutz. Then the wheels fell off a double Axel followed by a triple flip-double toeloop combo.
Levito was instantly in tears when the music stopped. She had little to say on an evening that went badly and unpredictably wrong.
“I don't know, it was not a really good skate and it is what it is,” said Levito, who ended up sixth out of the six finalists.
“I mean, it's no excuse for anything. I'm a little sick, fighting right now but it's not that big of a deal. But no, nothing's really wrong.”
The youngest American woman to win a Grand Prix since Sarah Hughes in 2001, Levito stands more than 20 points off the pace of leader Sakamoto Kaori, who is chasing her elusive first Grand Prix Final crown and appears poised to win barring a meltdown.
The podium top Levito was eyeing is now distant. But against all odds, she hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet ahead of the Saturday free program.
“I just had a bad skate today and it is what it is,” she said. “We'll see tomorrow, we'll see tomorrow.”