Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps clinched the silver medal in the pairs competition at the figure skating Grand Prix de France held on Saturday. The pair achieved a total score of 197.66 points, with a remarkable performance in the free skate segment where they garnered 123.40 points. Their short program on Friday also earned them a respectable score of 73.26 points.
Despite a few errors during the free skate, the reigning world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara from Japan secured the gold medal in the pairs event with a substantial lead of 21 points, totaling 219.15 points. Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko claimed the bronze medal with a total score of 192.76 points.
In the ice dance competition, Canadian duo Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac finished in sixth place after the rhythm dance, scoring 73.75 points. Leading the ice dance segment were Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson with a score of 84.38 points, followed by Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius in second place with 80.98 points and France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron in third place with 78.00 points.
Noteworthy is the performance of Ilia Malinin, the world champion figure skater from the United States, who took a commanding lead in the short program at the Grand Prix de France. Malinin showcased his prowess by executing a quadruple flip, a quadruple lutz-triple toeloop combination, and a backflip, accumulating 105.22 points. This performance placed him well ahead of his competitors Nika Egadze from Georgia and Kao Miura from Japan, who scored 95.67 and 87.25 points, respectively.
Ami Nakai of Japan delivered a surprising upset by outshining three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto and leading a Japanese women’s podium sweep at the Grand Prix de France. Nakai’s outstanding performance in her debut senior Grand Prix competition earned her a total score of 227.08 points, with a remarkable free skate score of 149.08 points, which included a successful triple axel jump.
The Grand Prix de France serves as the inaugural event in a series of six regular season Grand Prix competitions leading up to the final in December. This series acts as a crucial competitive platform for elite skaters aiming for success at the upcoming Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.