The world figure skating championships will begin overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, and will be held in Japan, in Saitama.
One year after Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron’s fifth world title in ice dancing, the world figure skating championships will take place in Saitama, Japan, from Wednesday March 22 to Sunday March 26 (broadcast on france.tv and France 3). In the absence of its star couple, the France team will be able to count on its recent and young European champion, Adam Siao Him Fa (22 years old). He will be among the underdogs of the competition while Russian and Belarusian skaters are still banned from competing. Franceinfo: sport presents what you need to know before the start of the competition.
A French team still orphaned by Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron
A year ago exactly, or almost, the French tandem entered a little more in the history of ice dancing. On the Montpellier ice rink, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, almost a month only after their first Olympic title in Beijing, had gleaned a fifth world title, thus becoming the second most successful couple in their discipline (behind the Russians Lioudmila Pakhomova and Alexandr Gorshkov in the 70s with six titles). In the wake of this new feat, and almost to everyone’s surprise, the Clermontois announced that they would make a “break“for an indefinite period. A year later, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron still haven’t put their skates back on.
In Saitama, the French team will appear without its star couple but with three ice dancing tandems (Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier, Marie Dupayage and Thomas Nabais then Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud) who will perform mainly to take experience failing to be able to play the podium. The Blues can also count on the participation of two couples (Camille and Pavel Kovalev then Oxana Vouillamoz and Flavien Giniaux), a woman (Lorine Schild), and two men (Kevin Aymoz and Adam Siao Him Fa).
Adam Siao Him Fa, European champion and outsider?
Unknown to the general public two months ago, Adam Siao Him Fa has a new status to defend. Crowned European champion at only 22 years old, on January 27 in Finland, he took up the torch from a certain Florent Amodio, the last French skater to have reached the highest step of the European hierarchy in 2011. In the absence Nathan Chen’s reigning Olympic champion Adam Siao Him Fa will be among the underdogs for the podium while Japan’s Shoma Uno and South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan will be tough to beat in the gold medal fight.
The tricolor prodigy, a resident of the Nice club, puts no pressure on himself for results, aware of presenting himself among the contenders but not having fixed the medal as “a primary objective“. “I aim above all for performancehe told AFP. I will try to skate clean, whether it is the short program or the long program and the result will follow behind.” European champion having beaten his personal record in Espoo (267.77 points in total), he will have to do even better, around 285 points, if he wants to climb on the box. It will pass, in any case, by a near-perfect score and the execution, without falling, of at least three quadruple jumps.
In the absence of the Russians, a competition more open than ever
Five medals out of twelve possible in Beijing during the Olympic Games a year ago, half of the charms (6) in 2021 on the occasion of the Stockholm Worlds: when Russia (under neutral banner or not) competes, the suspense in takes a big hit. Still banned from participating because of the War in Ukraine, Russian (and Belarusian) skaters will obviously be the main absentees from these Saitama Worlds. Consequently, this makes it possible to reshuffle all the cards, in each of the categories almost.
Among the women, especially, many of them can claim the podium with the two Japanese – and favorites – Kaori Sakamoto and Rinka Watanabe. Behind, it will be necessary to count on the recent Georgian European champion, Anastasiia Gubanova, the Belgian Loena Hendrickx, or even the Americans, slightly behind but still on the lookout. In pairs, the defending champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (USA), and the locals Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, should once again compete for the crown in the absence of the Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Cong. Finally, in ice dancing, the usual rivals of the French star tandem, Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA), will be aiming for gold and nothing else, just like the Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier or the Italian European champions , Charlène Guignard (from Brest) and Marco Fabbri.
How and when to follow the tests?
The competition will begin on the night of Tuesday March 21 to Wednesday March 22, with the couples and ladies short programs. The events will be broadcast every day, live, on france.tv but also delayed, Saturday and Sunday, on France 3, from 3:15 p.m. Here is the detailed program of the competition which takes place in Saitama, Japan (French time):
- Wednesday March 22: from 7 a.m. on france.tv, short programs for couples and ladies
- Thursday March 23: from 7:15 a.m. on france.tv, the free program for couples and the short program for men
- Friday March 24: from 8.15 a.m. on france.tv, rhythmic dance and the ladies’ free program
- Saturday March 25: from 8:15 a.m. on france.tv then from 3:15 p.m. on France 3, the best moments of the free dance and the men’s free program
- Sunday March 26: from 8 a.m. on france.tv then from 3:15 p.m. on France 3, the Closing Gala
