Twelve years after Florent Amodio, the last Frenchman to have won a European title, Adam Siao Him Fa, 21, was crowned European figure skating champion on Friday January 27 in Espoo (Finland). With a total of 267.77 points, the Frenchman beat the Italian Matteo Rizzo (259.92 pts) and the Swiss Lukas Britschgi (248.01 pts).
In the absence of the defending champion, the Russian Mark Kondratuik suspended due to the war in Ukraine, the first place seemed more accessible than ever for the native of Bordeaux, 14th at the Olympic Games last year. All the technical elements of his free program were not perfectly executed in the first part of the choreography, but Siao Him Fa, who skated to music by Woodkid, later freed himself. He had a comfortable lead of more than ten points after the short program on Wednesday anyway.
This European gold medal comes to reward a good season for the Frenchman, crowned in November at the Grand Prix de France in Angers as well as at the French Championships a month later.
The other tricolor engaged, Kevin Aymoz, finished at the foot of the podium (240.92 pts), as in 2019. To the music of the “Gladiateur” thread, the Frenchman was only able to chain two jump combinations, which was worth losing a few points.
