Ilya Malinin started his Olympic season in stunning form, winning the French Grand Prix by an incredible 40 points, highlighting his dominance in men's figure skating.
The 20-year-old American, nicknamed the “God of the Quads,” landed five quadruple jumps in the free skate on Sunday in Angers to finish with a total score of 321.00, well ahead of three-time defending French champion Adam Siao Him Fa's score of 280.95. Nika Egadze from Georgia was third with a score of 259.41.
The only obvious flaw was a slight lack of rotation in one quad, but Malinin felt there was still a lot of work to be done.
“I think I’ll improve a lot more,” he said. “I think I can take a lot away from this competition. It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to next season.”
This extended Malinin's unbeaten streak to almost two years since his last defeat at the same competition in 2023. Remarkably, he did not have to attempt his signature quad Axel, a jump that only he had ever attempted in competition.
The French Grand Prix, the first of six events leading up to the December finale, serves as an early test for contenders ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.
The domestic public had reason to celebrate as Olympic ice dancing champion Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Baudry performed a breathtaking free dance and won gold together in their first international competition.
Third after the rhythm dance, despite falling at the end of the program, they rose to victory thanks to a brilliant performance to the soundtrack of the film “The Whale”, scoring 133.02 in the free program and 211.02 overall, 0.8 points ahead of the British Laila Fear and Lewis Gibson (210.24).
“It’s really nice to be at home with such a great audience and such a great partner,” Cizeron said. “We were really looking forward to our debut here and everything went as well as possible.”
“Of course, there are always concerns,” he added. “But I think that with each other’s experience and energy, we will be able to let go and embrace our personalities and the magic of the moment.”
