Favorite for his own succession, the French Adam Siao Him Fa assumed his status to retain his title of European figure skating champion with panache, Friday in Kaunas (Lithuania), by making an impression with a back somersault. In the lead after the short program, Siao Him Fa, 22, collected a cumulative score of 276.17 points. Despite a fall at the start of his stint, he is well ahead of the surprising Estonian Aleksandr Selevko (256.99) and the Italian Matteo Rizzo (250.87). He thus becomes the first French skater to retain his European title since Alain Calmat in the 1960s.
“It was really fun to skate this evening in Kaunas and I really enjoyed it even if it wasn’t perfect,” reacted the Bordeaux resident. This title rewards the constant progress of Siao Him Fa over the past two seasons. European champion last year for the first time, he confirmed his rise in power this season with two Grand Prix victories, a third French champion title and therefore this second continental crown. Arriving in Lithuania as the big favorite, he had to get to grips with this new status and not let the stress overtake him.
If we guessed a certain excitement in the short program, the Frenchman generally knew how to manage his nerves. “I felt really good when I got to the rink and then during the warm-up I was all shaking on the ice. But I was confident in my abilities and I fought until the end,” he explained. For his free program, punctuated by four quadruple jumps compared to three last year, he offered a melancholic start to the choreography before moving towards an explosion of more positive and luminous emotions, to music by Max Richter, rearranged by his coach Cédric Tour.
While he was especially dreading his inaugural quadruple lutz, it passed without incident but it was on his second jump, a quadruple toe loop, that he hit the ice. But its margin over the competition being sufficient – in the absence of the Russians, the most picky will point out – the fall had no impact on the ranking. The Frenchman even took the risk of being penalized with several points by performing a spectacular backflip at the end of the program, an element that is nevertheless prohibited.
“Of course it takes more energy to do it in a free program than in an exhibition, but I felt good and had the energy to attempt it. I wanted to do it for the public. It’s a little French touch,” he told the spectators. Before him, a compatriot, the ice rebel Surya Bonaly had already transgressed the codes of skating by achieving this technical feat in competition, during the Nagano Olympics in 1998. It is now on the world stage that Siao Him Fa will be expected. During the World Championships scheduled for March in Montreal, he will aim for a medal against the best in his discipline, such as the Japanese Shoma Uno or the American prodigy Ilia Malinin whom he has already beaten this season.
A legitimate contender for the podium at the start of the competition, the other Frenchman Kévin Aymoz, at the foot of the podium last year, had missed qualification for the free program after completely giving up on the court on Wednesday. The third tricolor competing in Lithuania, Luc Economides took 15th place with 210.56 points for his first European Championships.
Earlier in the day, the French Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud produced a flawless program in rhythm dance. Best chance of a tricolor medal in ice dancing in the absence of Olympic champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, they beat their personal best to reach 78.47 points on the notes of a medley of Mylène Farmer’s greatest hits. They are at the foot of the podium before the free scheduled for Saturday.
