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.

Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman finished 10th at 156.22.

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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The Associated Press