France’s François Pitot sits in third place, with 81.24 points, heading into the free skate on Sunday where he plans to jump a quad Salchow.
“I feel very good. Before the program I was pretty confident in my body,” Pitot said. “The shape was good, so I’m happy to go into a competition like this, mentally calm and with confidence. I was a bit nervous. Like everybody, I think, in competition before the short program, you have a little stress, but I dealt well with this stress. I transformed it into a good (kind of) stress.”
Pitot said he was shaky on the opening triple Axel due to an unusually high take-off, but then landed the rest of his jumps – a triple flip and triple Lutz-triple toe loop – cleanly. He was also able to improve on his step sequence and sit spin since the last competition back in France and get top levels on those elements.
Sitting in fourth place after the short is Republic of Korea’s Kim Hyungyeom. The Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games champion landed a clean quad toe loop and a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination to earn 74.69 points. While he got marked down for his triple Axel, the total score still puts Kim in strong contention to secure the Republic of Korea a second Olympic quota in the men’s singles event.
While happy with his result, Kim struggled to remember how he skated – that is how nervous he was to step on the ice.
“Since I was pretty nervous, I don’t really recall how I did. But I’m glad I pulled off a clean routine,” he said. “I did everything I could to calm myself down, like taking deep breaths and talking to myself. Truth is, I don’t remember anything. This is the most nervous I’ve ever been in a competition.”
Monaco’s Davide Lewton Brain wraps up the top five after the short program with 73.56 points. The figure skater and his team made a strategic decision on the morning of the competition to downscale a triple Axel to a double and the decision paid off as Lewton Brain landed all his jumps cleanly and looking relaxed.