10/24/2026 02:46:00
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10/24 14:44 CDT Siao leads after Olympic champ Shaidorov falls on figure
skating Grand Prix return
Siao leads after Olympic champ Shaidorov falls on figure skating Grand Prix
return
ANGERS, France (AP) --- Mikhail Shaidorov fell in his biggest competition since
winning Olympic figure skating gold, leaving Adam Siao Him Fa with a commanding
lead at the Grand Prix de France on Saturday.
Siao delighted the home crowd, which also saw the French Olympic champion team
of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron dominate and win the ice
dance.
Siao landed two quadruple jumps in his jazzy short program as he scored 102.46
points for a vast 17-point advantage over Estonia's Aleksandr Selevko in second
on 85.49 ahead of Sunday's free skate. South Korea's Seo Min-kyu was third on
83.83.
Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, who won Olympic gold in February after favorite Ilia
Malinin missed the medals, fell on his opening jump combination and put a hand
down on his next jump as he ended up fourth.
That continues a low-key start to Shaidorov's reign as Olympic champion after
he skipped last season's world championships --- a redemption skate for Malinin
--- and placed third in a lower-level event to begin this season.
Nakai wins after Aoki falls
Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai overcame self-doubt to win the women's title
in France for the second year running, moving up from third as short program
leader Yuna Aoki fell and dropped to fourth.
Skating to music from classic movie "An American In Paris," Nakai began with a
statement triple axel, a day after messing up the same jump, in a polished
skate to leapfrog the competition and score a total of 219.74.
Last year's win was the first on the Grand Prix circuit for Nakai. This one
confirms her as a star skater for Japan after four-time world champion Kaori
Sakamoto retired in March.
"Today, until my name was called, I couldn't really believe in myself or trust
myself," Nakai said through an interpreter. "But then I realized so many people
were here in the audience to support me, so then I was able to trust myself and
I'm so happy that I was able to deliver a good performance."
Anastasiia Gubanova was second for Georgia on 202.82, just ahead of Italy's
Lara Naki Gutmann, who rose from fifth overnight to take bronze on 202.37.
French win ice dance, Georgians lead pairs
In ice dance, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron remain the team to beat after
another statement win to start the season, scoring a total of 207.57 to win by
nearly 14 points from Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Georgia.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko won the first United States medal of
this year's Grand Prix series with bronze on 189.36.
European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava lead the pairs on
77.34, with the Russians Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii, competing
as neutral athletes, close behind on 75.85. Germany's Annika Hocke and Robert
Kunkel were third on 67.03.
This is the first time a Russian entry has competed in the Grand Prix series
since the 2021-22 season.
They were barred following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but the
International Skating Union approved some neutral athletes from Russia and
Belarus last season, when they were allowed only to enter the Olympics and one
Olympic qualifier. They can enter the full range of ISU events this season.
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