Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are used to carrying the hopes of France in figure skating. The Beijing Winter Olympics, which run until February 20, will be no exception. In the Chinese capital, the ice dancers will be aiming for no less than gold, having passed, four years earlier in South Korea, within a wire of the coronation (a choker of the dress of the skater had jumped, costing them points).
The Olympic title is the only one missing for the quadruple world champions and five-time European champions. But behind the duo, it’s the desert: their incredible track record serves as a cache-miserie in a sport where the Tricolores seem to be struggling.
French figure skating has never really been successful at the Olympics. He can only claim one individual medal for women: the bronze of Jacqueline du Bief, in Oslo (Norway), in 1952. As for the men, it’s been a blank slate since 1998 and the third place of Philippe Candeloro in Nagano (Japan).
The couple category did win three Olympic medals, but that was… between 1924 and 1932, with Andrée Joly and Pierre Brunet. It is only in ice dancing where the recent history is a little brighter, with four medals since 1992 – including gold for Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, in Salt Lake City (USA) in 2002 , but against a backdrop of controversy and arrangements between French and Russians by interposed judges.
“We have a global problem”
In Beijing, the possibilities to shine will be limited. The tricolor delegation is reduced to a trickle with only four qualified skaters. They were eight in South Korea in 2018, nine in Russia in 2014.
Alongside the ice dancers, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the five-time French champion, Kévin Aymoz, 24, and Adam Siao Him Fa, barely 21, will participate in their first Games in the men’s draw. They will have a hard time facing the 2014 and 2018 double Olympic champion, the Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu, and the reigning three-time world champion, the American Nathan Chen.
The observation is all the more bitter as, for the first time since 2010, no woman will compete in the individual event. The double champion of France 2021 and 2022, Léa Serna, one of the students of former skater Brian Joubert, in Poitiers, only took the 14and place of the Nebelhorn Trophy, in Oberstdorf, Germany, at the end of September 2021. Too far from the top 6, synonymous with the last quotas for Beijing.
“We have a global problem. The Russians seem almost unbeatable. We are far from having, today, girls capable of competing with themsummarizes the president of the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG), Nathalie Péchalat. But from there to not qualifying for the Games… We’re not going to lie to each other, it was a disappointment. »
The Blues will not be aligned in the couple category either, unheard of for twenty years. Failing to be represented in the four categories (ladies, men, couple and ice dancing), France will not participate in the Olympic team event.
Adverse effects of the health crisis
Hexagonal skating, however, seems to have regained a certain serenity after a year 2020 shaken by revelations of sexual abuse, which had led to the resignation of Didier Gailhaguet, strongman of the FFSG for more than twenty years. Her successor, Nathalie Péchalat, concedes that work still remains to be done to sustainably clean up the federation and fully regain the trust of members. But, in his eyes, it is the Covid-19 pandemic that has had the most deleterious effects on this Olympic season.
“The fact of having to stop for weeks, the loss of motivation, the difficulties in resuming training…lists the former ice dancer. It was extremely complicated. What we experienced made us think about everyone’s priorities. »
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron can attest to this. If the duo, based in Canada, have not interrupted their preparation, they have however spent twenty months without playing any competition – notably skipping the entire 2020-2021 season – due to various travel restrictions. .
Revenge in Beijing
The Epinal Masters (Vosges), from September 30 to October 2, 2021, marked their return. With a total of 231.10 points, the duo would have even set a new world record there if the results of this national event were taken into account by the International Skating Union (ISU). A few weeks later, in Cergy (Val-d’Oise), the two ice dancers also offered themselves a 7and title of champions of France, with 94.48 points in rhythmic dance, signing, again, a score higher than the world reference (90.03 points).
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 will however have upset their reunion with the cream of the discipline, in particular the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who had beaten them at the 2020 European Championships and went for the world title in their absence. in March 2021. The Grand Prix Final (the last stage of a series of six events organized by the ISU), which was to take place in early December 2021 in Osaka (Japan), was canceled due to the pandemic. The French then decided, “as a precaution”to skip the European Championships in Tallinn (Estonia) in mid-January – won by Russians Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov – which was to be their last international competition before the Games.
The long-awaited rematch will therefore take place at the National Stadium in Beijing on February 14. With perhaps, the key, the most beautiful coronation.