Trail of Heroes: The rest of competition

In October 2025, Shane and I visited Angers, France and London, England for 10 days of performances and adventures. These posts capture the details of our trip.

The high of the women’s medal ceremony had hardly worn off before we were due back at the rink for the next two competitive events.

The men’s short program was first up (with 12 skaters). Most memorable from this event were two moments of cheering:

• During the Japanese men’s skates, fresh-off-their-win medalists Kaori, Ami, and Rion came out to with a big Japanese flag to cheer from the back of the stands. Of course the cameras caught them so the whole audience could smile and laugh about this too. (They would return to cheer on the Japanese pair as well.)
• France’s Adam Siao Him Fa was one of the faces we had seen around the rink a lot; his mom was even running a little fan merchandise booth for him. As a longtime beloved skater, Adam’s presence on the ice made the French crowd (delightfully) lose its mind.

The pairs’ free skate followed the men, meaning medals were once again on the line. This event was rockier than the women’s: the Canadians missed their first element, which threw off the rest of their routine a bit, and even the Japanese finished on a rough-around-the-edges lift. (It was interesting how we felt more nervous or confident about elements, based on how these had gone in practice.)

Nonetheless, these two teams still ended up second and first (respectively), with a strong performance by Hungarians Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko landing them in third.

The following morning we got up early for the final public practice sessions (ice dance and men, since they were the only ones left to compete). I loved seeing Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson do another partial run-through of their Scottish dance program.

…and this free dance was all the more fun during competition that afternoon, with the crowd clapping in time to the final poppy bagpipe rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”. I can’t wait to see this one done for an Olympic audience! It’s a banger.

The new French ice dance pair Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron ultimately won gold, with Lilah and Lewis taking silver, and my favourite Lithuanians Allison and Saulius scoring a bronze. (The Italians and audience were once again aghast at another low score, further fueling conspiracy theories!)

The crowd went bananas for the French win of course, led by a huge section of fans who had shown up in matching “allez bleus” shirts with flags, drums, and organized cheers (not to mention giant heads of French skaters). The mood was super jaunty going into the final competitive event: the men’s free skate.

The first highlight was watching American Andrew Torgashev pull off an awesome routine. He’d done poorly in the short program (finishing last) and then struggled in the practices. Having experienced those sessions, we were extra invested in his final performance; it was lovely seeing him skate surprisingly clean.

The next high point was when Adam came out. The crowd was of course going bananas again (and every other fruit besides), but since his skating has a wild inconsistency to it, we didn’t know what to expect. Jump after jump passed successfully, though, and minute by minute the music and performance built to something truly beautiful, emotional, and nearly flawless!

The second the music stopped, sheer elation exploded out of everyone around us. The local favourite had given one of the skates of his life in front of a home crowd, and it was akin to winning the Olympics. He was thrilled, his coaching team was thrilled, the entire venue was on its feet, and I was running out of tissues. =)

When his score came in, shooting him well into the lead, the crowd could not have been happier. Certainly some people would have gladly had the competition end there. However, more skaters were left to go, including one in particular who would skate last: American Ilia Malinin.

If you have not heard of Ilia, he is a skating prodigy whose star has been rapidly rising over the last few years with his unbelievable mastery over quadruple jumps. Because of this technical prowess, Ilia has become more or less unbeatable. So you could almost feel a slight (non-rink-related) chill in the air as he entered the ice (with Georgia’s Nika Egadze in second and Adam still holding the lead).

The thing is, though, Ilia’s skill is undeniable. By the time he’d completed his first few (flawless) quads, the crowd couldn’t help but get behind him too. (I have a vivid memory of the woman next to me shaking her head in amazed disbelief as Ilia landed an effortless quad right below us.)

Ilia’s program was loaded with technical perfection and emotion, ending in another standing ovation and hearty acceptance of his win—by 40 freaking points!

As one spectator’s sign said: “It’s Ilia’s world. We’re just living in it.”

The medal ceremonies for the ice dance and men finished out the afternoon. The venue stayed nice and packed until the end, with the majority eager to share in the French successes.

Our first live skating competition could not have gone better. Whatever expectations we’d arrived with were blown out of the water. The ups and downs and drama of top-level sport kept us spellbound and inspired for four days, erasing our real-world worries entirely.

It was like a vacation within a vacation. Luckily our stay on Planet Skating had one more experience in store for us.

Next up: final celebratory skates and a farewell to France!