ISU GP 2024/25 Event #3 - Angers, FRA - 1-3 Nov. 2024

[Elizabeth]

Entries, by discipline, used to be here: https://results.isu.org/events/fsevent00120606.htm

The new link: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... ance-2024/

Time & practice schedule: https://results.isu.org/schedules/gpfra ... hedule.pdf

[Elizabeth]

Update - October 22:
Clemence Mayindu replaces Maia Mazzara at Grand Prix de France

[Elizabeth]

The ISU website redesign has created a problem with links already posted for this GP (and for other events coming up). I have corrected the one above for the Entries.

The new link for more information about this event is: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... ance-2024/

BEWARE of the time change happening this weekend (overnight on Saturday) in North America. France already "fell back" last weekend meaning they are currently 5 hours ahead of EDT but will revert to the usual 6 on Sunday.

The planned streaming by CBC Sports as posted here: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/streaming-sch ... %20Skating

Fri Nov 01
9:00 a.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Women's Short Program
11:00 a.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Ice Dance Rhythm Dance
12:45 p.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Men's Short Program
12:45 p.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Pairs Short Program

Sat Nov 02
8:30 a.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Women's Free Program
10:40 a.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Men's Free Program
12:50 p.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Ice Dance Free Program
2:40 p.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Pairs Free Program

Sun Nov 03
8:30 a.m. - ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Grand Prix de France - Gala

[Elizabeth]

The time conversion chart

[Elizabeth]

Skate Canada press release on the team going to Angers: https://skatecanada.ca/2024/10/four-can ... de-france/

Four Canadian Skaters to Compete at Grand Prix de France
October 29, 2024/by Skate Canada

OTTAWA, ON (October 29, 2024) – With the 2024-25 skating season in full swing, four Canadian athletes will travel to Angers, France this week for the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating circuit. The Grand Prix de France will take place from November 1-3, 2024, and will see Canadian skaters compete in pairs and ice dance.

In the pairs competition, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud will be the team to beat as the reigning gold medallists in the event. The duo will look to claim their first international medal of the season after narrowly missing out on a podium position at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September.

Seasoned ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac will arrive in France fresh off a seventh-place finish at Skate America, the first stop on the Grand Prix circuit. The team secured a top-five finish at the Grand Prix de France last year.


Team Canada
Name | Age | Hometown | Coach

Pairs
Lia Pereira | 20 | Milton, ON & Trennt Michaud | 28 | Brantford, ON | Alison Purkiss

Ice Dance
Marie-Jade Lauriault | 28 | St-Anne-Des-Plains, QC & Romain Le Gac | 29 | Laval, QC | Romain Haguenauer

Team Leader: Mike Slipchuk
Medical Team: Pat Stanziano
Officials: Erica Topolski & Leslie Keen

[Elizabeth]

The Entries/Start Orders/Results link is now up: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... /index.htm

The ISU YouTube channel now has the links up for each part of the competition: https://www.youtube.com/SkatingISU

[Elizabeth]

The view from outside and inside the arena


Practices are underway and there is

[Elizabeth]

The start orders for Friday

[Elizabeth]

Schedule overview (all times local)

[Elizabeth]

Day 1 of competition


Start Orders/Results: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... /index.htm

Live streams:
Women’s Short Program: https://youtube.com/live/JkvCYz5aR0I
Ice Dance Rhythm Dance: https://youtube.com/live/ZlfHgobIW5s
Men’s Short Program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PnQfhKLaRo
Pairs Short Program: https://youtube.com/live/SBNM3d8ydT8

[Elizabeth]

The Women SP results


The leaders




Press conference


Amber Glenn BREAKS the record for highest short program score for a U.S. woman in international competition. Her SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOK4eOOrkE

[Elizabeth]

Rhythm Dance results:


The leaders




Press conference


Canada's representatives in the Ice Dance - Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac

Comments from the Mixed Zone:

Marie-Jade: “We felt really good today. We were also confident going into Skate America but during the last two weeks we worked hard to build our confidence back up.”

Romain: “It was a very intense 5 days of training where we focused a lot on the technical side. It was very good and we are very thankful to our coaches.”

On skating at “home” in Angers:

Romain: “When we represented France we skated for the skating club of Angers. We remember when this rink was built. We know a lot of people here, also we see some of the kids that back then skated here still skating here, or working here as volunteers. It is really nice to see how the skating here in Angers developed and what a great event this is.”

Their RD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFB16Z0h68

[Elizabeth]

Men SP results (including some surprises)



Detailed protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

The leaders




Press conference


Boyang JIN SP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceo6ozPh4vY

[Elizabeth]

The 4th and final event of Day 1 - the Pairs SP
Results

Detailed protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

The leaders




Press conference


Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud


From the mixed zone

Lia: “We feel really good about today. We still gain new experiences every time we go out there. This was our first time coming back to an event we won last year, so dealing with some kind of expectations was new. But overall it was very nice to come back here where we know the venue already and everything feels familiar.”

Trennt: “This new SP was choreographed by Jean-Luc Baker and Olivia Smart. They are two of my best friends. For Olivia it was actually the first choreography she ever did. We love her she is so creative and such a good performer.”

Lia: “People told us we look like we have so much fun during practices, so we wanted to show that in this new fun program. It shows this fun part of our personalities very well. We really enjoy performing it.”

Trennt: “Our goal is to medal in every event we attend, we know we are capable of that.”

Video of their SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xGu9TwBQOg

[Elizabeth]

ISU press releases:

• Event preview: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... de-france/
• Women SP: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... de-france/
• Rhythm Dance: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... ngers-fra/
• Men SP: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... de-france/
• Pairs SP: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... t-program/

[Elizabeth]

Day 2 of competition (times are 5 hours ahead of EDT)


ISU YouTube live streams (with Mark Hanretty)
Women Free Skating: https://youtube.com/live/P1Z2FIZtULo
Men Free Skating: https://youtube.com/live/wChBbmXO_nM
Ice Dance Free Dance: https://youtube.com/live/5gylmWVBJIY
Pairs Free Skating: https://youtube.com/live/eZJ9f1ZlQRw

[Elizabeth]

Results of the Women FS


Detailed protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

Overall results


The medallists






Amber Glenn wins the GP de France women’s title, her first GP of her career.
Wakaba Higuchi has booked her place in the Grand Prix Final with her in Angers.

Press conference

[Elizabeth]

Men FS results


Detailed protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

Overall results (some "interesting" changes in position)


The medallists






Press conference



This was NOT a well-skated event - in fact, Bev Smith commented on X (formerly Twitter):

That was the biggest dog's breakfast of a men's event I've seen in a while. But the result is right at #GPFRA. Adam Saio Him Fa rose from 8th in SP to win the FP and the gold by 13 pts. Everybody else slipped around and struggled. Adam blew a big 4t combo but worked the rest.
To add to the craziness of the men's event at #GPFRA, Nikolaj Memola finished 2nd in the free (!!!!!) , sixth overall, after a 10th in the SP. Landed a 4Lz (crazy for such a tall guy), ripped off a huge 3A and did all, with level 4s. 158.91 for that, behind Adam's 171.68.

History was made, however with the landing of a 3A-4T combo by Mikhail Shaidorov .

[Elizabeth]

Event #3 of Day 2 - the Free Dance brought some more surprises.

The results


Detailed protocols link: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

Overall results


The medallists






Press conference


Lopareva/Brissaud have earned their way to the Grand Prix Final after their results here plus those at Skate Canada International last week.

Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac

From the Mixed Zone -

Marie-Jade: “We knew we made many little mistakes today so we expected the score to be not too high. We are still prpud because we improved on the levels from Skate America and that’s what we work on.”

They will skate next at Warsaw Cup, and will go back home inbetween, to take two days off, do the Christmas decorations and of course work hard with their team.

[Elizabeth]

And the final event of the competition - the Pairs Free Skate

Results


Detailed protocols: https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

Overall results


The medallists






Press conference high jinks


Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud - their FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYqdGD91tJg
From the Mixed Zone -

Lia: “I can’t really tell what happened. We worked so much on the throws since Nebelhorn, also worked with mental performance coaches and skate clean long programs over and over again in practice. So I really can’t explain what happened in the moment.

Trennt: “Usually we feel more comfortable with the Free Skate compared to the short program, but not today.

We both wanted to skate to a tango for a while.”

Lia on her tango-look: “When we decided we’d do a tango program Ali [Alison Purkiss] and I decided to go with this little curl [styled on her cheek] and I really like it. In general I really enjoy doing my hair and make-up ahead of a competition, it’s part of my routine.”

[Elizabeth]

ISU Press releases:

• Women https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... de-france/
• Men https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... hat-trick/
• Dance https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... in-angers/
• Pairs https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/ ... de-france/

[Elizabeth]

Exhibition Gala live stream link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7mmXVSnP78

Gala program (initially posted on November 2)


Boyang JIN did not appear in the Gala.

REVISED Gala Program (November 3)

[Elizabeth]

Skate Canada press release on CDN results: https://skatecanada.ca/2024/11/two-top- ... de-france/

Two Top 10 Finishes for Canadian Skaters at Grand Prix de France
November 2, 2024/by Skate Canada

ANGERS, FRA (November 2, 2024) – The ISU Grand Prix continued this weekend in Angers, France at the Grand Prix de France and saw Canadian pair skaters Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, and ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac both post top-10 finishes against top international talent.

Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Michaud of Brantford, Ont., came into the competition as the reigning pair champions from this competition last season and posted a new season’s best score in their short program on Friday to sit in third place heading into the free skate on Saturday. Unfortunately, a series of errors, including falls on both of their throws, left them in fifth place overall with a total score of 170.67.

“I don’t know what went wrong,” said Pereira following their free skate performance. “Usually, you can say I felt nervous, or I felt this, but I felt like I usually do. We’ve both worked with mental performance coaches and I think it’s been a really great addition to our team, so I think it was just mistakes in the moment.”

Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, the reigning Grand Prix Final champions, won gold with a total score of 211.69. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy took silver (203.39), while Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, also of Italy, took bronze (176.62).

The ice dance competition saw Lauriault of St-Anne-des-Plains, Que., and Le Gac of Laval, Que., finish seventh overall with a season’s best total score of 175.85. They also set a new season’s best score of 72.54 for their rhythm dance on Friday.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t reached our goals yet, but we know we’re going to keep working, and it’s still the beginning of the season,” said Le Gac who also finished seventh at Skate America two weeks ago with Lauriault in their season debut. “We’re proud of our week. We learned a lot at the last two Grand Prix and we’re going to keep working for our next event.”

Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France, who took home bronze from Skate Canada International last weekend, climbed to the top step of the podium this weekend, winning gold with a total score of 195.27. Last year’s champions, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy, settled for silver (189.08), while Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville of the USA took bronze (185.88).

The ISU Grand Prix circuit continues at the NHK Trophy taking place in Tokyo, Japan from November 8-10, 2024 where Stephen Gogolev will be Canada’s lone competitor in the men’s competition.

[Elizabeth]

The gentleman who did the Kiss 'n Cry interviews at this event and was the on-ice host for the Gala was Fernand Fédronic. He is a former competitive skater (as an amateur in the 1980s; later as a professional), now a choreographer, and also an opera singer.



Skateguard (Ryan Stevens) interviewed him and posted it on his blog back in January 2014:
https://www.skateguardblog.com/2014/01/ ... ronic.html