There were what many would have considered quite a few surprises in the 2023 Grand Prix of France event. As Ilia Malinin was the favorite to win the men’s title, Adam Siao Him Fa skated with much energy and speed for both his short and free programs to overtake the title over Malinin. Siao Him Fa landed a quad lutz, a jump that earned him nearly 4 GOE points, and landed a quad toe-triple toe combo for each of the programs he skated to. In the free he landed a total of 4 quad jumps. Though Malinin landed 4 clean quads and even ends up with a higher TES score than Siao Him Fa, it was not enough for gold as Adam wins with a higher PCS score. Yuma Kagiyama, a skater who is on a comeback from being absent from the sport due to injury, skated a clean short program, and a strong enough long program for him to earn the bronze medal. Lukas Britschgi ends up in 4th place even with a strong free skate that places him 3rd in the free even over Kagiyama.
Women’s Event
With Levito being one of the favorites to win the event, she decisively wins the short program. However, as many expected that she would win the free, especially after some errors from some of the other top seeded skaters, she also had a major error along with a couple of other minor errors. The 1 major error that brought her to 3rd place in the free was not being able to control her final spin where she had to restart the spin after trying to finish out of it, and caused her to not earn any points on her final spin. However, the points she earned in the free skate were enough for her to win gold at the event. Rion Sumiyoshi, who landed her first quad in any (domestic or international) competition won the free skate and earned bronze overall. Though a little controversial on the full rotation of the quad, Sumiyoshi lands the first ratified quad by the ISU of the 2023 Grand Prix season. Newcomer to the Grand Prix circuit, Nina Pinzarrone had clean short and free programs to earn her a silver medal.
Photo by Crystal Kim
Isabeau Levito performing to her “Snake Charmer” short program.