Credit: ISU
Olympic champions win World Title
Two-time Olympic medalist Shoma Uno claimed his first World title. 2022 Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama took his second consecutive World silver medal while Vincent Zhou (USA) rose from sixth to earn the bronze.
Short Program leader Uno opened his dynamic performance to a modern version on Ravel’s Bolero with a confident quadruple loop and followed up with a quadruple Salchow, quad toe-double toe, quad flip and two triple Axels. The only glitches came when he underrotated a wobbly quad toe and singled the flip in combination with the second Axel. The two-time World silver medalist collected a level four for his spins and footwork and for the first time cracked the 200-points barrier in the Free Skating with 202.85 points. His total score of 312.48 is a new personal best as well.
“This was my last short and free program for this season, so I wanted to have a performance that made my coach Stephane Lambiel proud. I was able to achieve that and I haven’t won too often, so I’m very happy about that,” the 24-year-old said. “The choreography of this program is very challenging and I had to challenge myself for five quads. It was a very challenging year in a physical way. That I came here under these circumstances makes me really happy and I’m grateful for my score after having a difficult experience last time in France (at the Grand Prix in 2019). “During my steps I thought I was doing enough and I was really getting tired, but I wanted to do justice to Stephane. I was watching all the performances of the previous groups, so I knew very well where I was. All my emotions went into a smile at the end of my program,” he added.
Kagiyama landed a quad Salchow, quad toe, quad toe-Euler-triple toe and three more triple jumps in his program to “Gladiator”, but he landed forward on his quad loop attempt (downgraded) and popped the Axel into a single. The 18-year-old scored 191.91 points in the Free Skating and accumulated 297.60 points.
“Today it didn't go as well as at the Olympics. I made some really bad mistakes on the (quad) loop and the Axel. Emotionally I was really nervous and that's the reason why I couldn't do so well. The tension was maybe because I had a great opportunity to win and I was trying to put on a perfect performance, so maybe that fed my tension,” the 2022 Olympic silver medalist commented. “Last season at the Worlds I won the silver medal and maybe I put on too much pressure and lost focus and objectives. But I was able to regain my focus in the end and that was a big growth factor for me in this season,” he added.
Zhou’s performance to “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, was highlighted by a quad Lutz, quad Salchow, triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow and an expressive step sequence, but he underrotated a few jumps. The American was ranked fourth in the Free Skating at 181.54 points but moved up to third to claim his second World bronze medal at 277.38 points.
“The Covid (infection at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games) itself was not that bad but the mental hell I went through afterwards was infinitely worse than anything it could do to me,” Zhou shared. “I think about 11 or 12 days ago I woke up in that bottomless pit and I called my agent and my coaches and some people close to me and I felt like my whole career was a failure and it had been for nothing and I thought I couldn’t do it. The one thing that got me here to France was the feeling inside me that I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with the regret that I didn’t even try and so with that - that was the only thing that I guess kept me somewhat invested in my step by step journey of coming here and getting on the ice getting on the plane first and getting on the ice and taking it day by day. That medal definitely was very difficult for me to come by and one of the most meaningful and significant moments of my career.”
2020 European bronze medalist Morisi Kvitelashvili (GEO) pulled up from seventh to fourth with a personal-best performance to achieve the best result for a Georgian skater at the ISU World Championships (272.03 points). Camden Pulkinen ranked third in the Free Skating with an excellent performance to move up from 12th to fifth at 271.69 points. Kazuki Tomono (JPN) slipped from third to sixth after making some errors (269.37 points).
Junhwan Cha (KOR) withdrew before the Free Skating due to equipment failure. His right skating boot was broken.
Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) dance to fifth World title on home ice
Olympic Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France danced to their fifth World title on home ice at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Montpellier (FRA) Saturday. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) took the silver, their fourth consecutive World medal while teammates Madison Chock/Evan Bates collected the bronze, their third World medal.
When Papadakis/Cizeron took the ice last out of the 20 Couples in the Final the capacity crowd at the Arena Sud de France greeted them with huge applause. The Olympic Champions danced with dreamlike confidence, with each step, each movement expressing the Tango “Elegie” by Gabriel Fauré. The moment the music ended, the crowd rose as one and cheered. The five-time European Champions earned a level four for two lifts, the spin and twizzles and a level three for the diagonal step sequence and rotational lift to post a new record score and personal best of 137.09. They picked up a total of 36 perfect 10.00s and racked up 229.82 points, another new highest score.
“After a season like this, after winning the Games, being here at home in France with our team, our coaches, there's so much history, so many people, I think the emotions we had on the ice today, it does not compare to anything. It was magical,” Cizeron said. “I think we try to make the most of every moment with all the skaters that are here, we try to make the most of every memory, with every person, every moment,” he added.
Papadakis agreed. “It was a magical moment, we knew there would be a lot of people but we didn't expect that, so it was really emotional, so much that I don't know how to focus, but it was beautiful too. I’m just so grateful and we’re so lucky to have been surrounded by our closest friends here on the podium. I think that’s very rare and it’s what makes it worth it - gold medals, and the event, and the work. I think friendship in the end is what stays.“
Dancing to “Drowning” by Anne Sila, Hubbell/Donohue turned in a beautiful performance, the last one of their competitive career. The Olympic bronze medalists picked up a level four for three elements and her twizzles. The Americans posted another personal best with 132.67 points and 222.39 points overall to finish their career on a high note.
“We knew that the emotions were very high – we felt it this morning on practice. For many of us the goal was to not get too emotional and hinder the performance right before starting,” Hubbell shared. “We also know how to focus and we knew that we wanted to skate our best for each other for our last moment and we found peace in that. We’re just very happy. You see that we have our whole family here so it’s a really special moment that we couldn’t have dreamed it better,” she continued.
Chock/Bates’ innovative “space dance” to music by Daft Punk was highlighted by interesting lifts and intricate footwork. The lifts, spin and twizzles merited a level four and the two-time ISU Four Continents Champions netted 129.32 points and totaled 216.83 points to return on to the World podium six years after winning silver in 2016.
“I feel incredibly emotional. It was a dream to be able to share that podium with our training mates and to be back on the podium after what feels like a very, very long time (World silver in 2015, bronze in 2016). Lots of emotions,” Chock said.
“It was one of the best crowds we’ve ever skated in front of. I can’t remember such a full audience – maybe in three, four years – for an ice dance event. Obviously the enthusiasm for ice dance because of what Gabi and Guillaume (Papadakis/Cizeron) have achieved is so strong, and we’re so thrilled to take the ice and just bask in that energy, take it all in, and thrilled with the performances we gave to the audience today and yesterday,” Bates noted.
Two-time ISU European bronze medalists Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) came fourth with their emotional dance to “Atonment” and “Little Sparrow” on 209.92 points. 2021 ISU World bronze medalists Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) danced to “Long and Winding Road” to place fifth (202.70 points) while Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) moved up from seventh to sixth with their dynamic performance to “The Lion King” (198.17 points). Olivia Smart/Adrian Diaz (ESP) came seventh, the best placement in history for Spanish Ice Dance.