Nothing should surprise anymore coming from the whimsical skater from Bordeaux, neither his audacity on the ice, nor his combativeness in difficulty.
But after moving up 16 places in March at the Worlds, going from 19th to 3rd place, unheard of, he once again wrote a page in history because never has a skater been ranked higher than 7th place after the court had never won a Grand Prix.
Upset but not dejected on Friday evening, he returned relaxed and released on Saturday afternoon.
“On Friday, I had more pressure, pressure that I put on myself, which is a bit stupid,” he admitted after his free.
Injured an ankle during the summer and with only five weeks of preparation, he knew he was not 100%, even if he assured that he had “no more pain, overall my ankle is doing very well”.
After “emptying my mind,” “I went at it like it was training, forgetting everything else, leaving my brain at the edge of the track when I got back on the ice,” he said. he recounted.
Certainly, his performance “was far from perfect”, as he admitted, and he also benefited from the very mediocre exercises of the skaters ahead of him in the ranking.
Even Mikhail Shaidorov's triple axel-quadruple toe loop sequence, which no one had ever achieved in competition, did not allow the Kazakh to do better than 5th in the free and 4th overall, behind the Japanese Koshiro Shimada and the American Andrew Torgashev who completes the men's podium.
The music of “Dune”
But Siao Him Fa's new program, inspired by the music and the world of the film “Dune”, won over the judges and an audience at the IceParc in Angers that was already largely won over.
“I am very optimistic for this program,” he even slipped, promising to “continue to work hard”.
Halfway through the six Grand Prix season, his next stop will be the final stop in Chongqing, China, from November 22-24, just before the Final Grand Prix which will be held in Grenoble in early December.
If he qualifies, he will meet French dancers Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud, who train in Bordeaux, 3rd at Skate Canada last week and first on Saturday, ahead of the Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri, double European champions and double title holders in Angers.
“It’s an incredible experience to win our first competition in France, in front of our families, our friends, our public. Winning this medal is super cool,” rejoiced Brissaud.
The Italians, arch-favorites and well ahead after the short end, struggled to explain their collapse.
