ANGERS, France (AP) — Olympic figure skating champion Mikhail Shaidorov slumped to 10th on Sunday as home favorite Adam Siao Him Fa won the Grand Prix de France on Sunday.
Shaidorov's skate was packed with high-scoring jumps, but it went badly wrong in a way reminiscent of Ilia Malinin's disastrous Olympic performance, which paved the way for Shaidorov to take gold in February.
The Kazakhstan skater fell twice, including on a quadruple toeloop, and under-rotated his other three quads in the worst-scoring free skate of the day, dropping from fourth to 10th overall. He stared down at the ice and ran his hand across his hair as he finished the skate.
It was only Shaidorov's second competition since winning Olympic gold, following third place in a lower-level event to begin the season.
Siao has struggled for consistency in the past, but showed little sign of that with a strong free skate for a total of 284.24. Kao Miura of Japan shrugged off an early fall to soar from ninth to second on a 247.96 total, with South Korea's Seo Min-kyu third on his Grand Prix debut with 244.90.
European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won the pairs event despite a heavy fall for Metelkina on a throw triple loop. The Georgians rallied for a total score of 204.65 to stay ahead of Russians Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii, competing as neutral athletes, on 197.66. Germany's Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel won their first Grand Prix medal since 2023 with bronze on 179.74.
This was 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 a much wider range of ISU events this season.
On Saturday, Ami Nakai of Japan retained her Grand Prix de France title in the women's event and the French Olympic champion team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won the ice dance.
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