Siao leads as Olympic champ Shaidorov falls on figure skating Grand Prix return

ANGERS, France (AP) — Mikhail Shaidorov fell in his biggest competition since winning Olympic figure skating gold, leaving Adam Siao Him Fa with a commanding lead at the Grand Prix de France on Saturday.

Home favorite Siao delighted the home crowd, which also saw the French Olympic champion team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron dominate the ice dance event.

Siao landed two quadruple jumps in his jazzy short program as he scored 102.46 points for a vast 17-point advantage over Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko in second on 85.49 ahead of Sunday’s free skate. South Korea’s Seo Min-kyu was third on 83.83.

Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, who won Olympic gold in February after favorite Ilia Malinin missed the medals, fell on his opening jump combination and put a hand down on his next jump as he ended up fourth.

That continues a low-key start to Shaidorov’s reign as Olympic champion after he skipped last season’s world championships — a redemption skate for Malinin — and placed third in a lower-level event to begin this season.

In ice dance, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron remain the team to beat after another statement win to start the season, scoring a total 207.57 to win by nearly 14 points from Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Georgia.

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko won the first United States medal of this year’s Grand Prix series with bronze on 189.36.

Later Saturday, the pairs event begins with the short program before Japan’s Yuna Aoki aims to convert her short-program lead into a first Grand Prix win in the women’s free skate.

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