Adam Siao Him Fa won the silver medal at the Finlandia Trophy and secured his spot in the Grand Prix Final.
Skate Info Glace: What is your take on your free program?
Adam: I gave everything I could. I was very nervous, but I didn’t feel like I lost control. I tried to fight until the end on every element. I’m taking a lot of positives from it, even if the program was weaker than in Angers. I’m still working on myself, so things will keep moving forward.
Skate Info Glace: You had a big fall during the warm-up, on a triple toe loop. You laughed it off. Then there were a few pops, and after that you seemed to regain control.
Adam: That fall actually helped me a lot because I was tense. It made me laugh, it relaxed me. Yes, there were pops afterwards, but I felt less lost. That fall gave me some perspective: you fall on a triple toe loop (laughs). It’s fine.
Skate Info Glace: You qualify for the Final.
Adam: It’s great, because I need competitions, and the Final is the perfect preparation event. There’s no pressure. I did the hardest part by qualifying. We’re going to make the most of this competition at the highest level and try to gain as much experience as possible. It’s a big boost of motivation. I’ll try to train next week from Monday to Friday, without any problems or illness (smiles). We have a few small changes to make to the programs with Benoît. And just for the story, I did my choreo step in the wrong direction. At the end of the spin, I came out on the wrong side and thought: “Ah! Well… too bad!” And in the Kiss & Cry, Cédric and Benoît told me it actually works quite well that way, too!
Skate Info Glace: How do you look back on these two Grand Prix silver medals?
Adam: Of course, it could have been better, just as it could have been worse, but I see it in a very positive light, especially compared to how the season started. It was really difficult, and despite that, I still enjoyed skating. I qualified for the Final without necessarily skating clean, so that’s encouraging.
Skate Info Glace: A fourth place in Helsinki was enough to qualify for the Final, so one could imagine you approached this competition with a bit more ease.
Adam: I didn’t know.
Skate Info Glace: You really had no idea?
Adam: Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the Final, the placements or the points. I just wanted to focus on my performance and try to release the pressure to have fun. That’s the essential point I’m trying to keep in mind during competitions. At the start of the season, I felt like that’s what was draining me: I wasn’t enjoying myself, I wasn’t having fun. And it’s often when I’m having fun that everything becomes easier, especially the jumps. We knew the Final was possible, but it wasn’t a goal. This season, the goal is for me to feel good, physically, mentally, and above all to enjoy myself.
Skate Info Glace: You did look quite relaxed during practice.
Adam: Yes, I try to enjoy competitions as much as possible and to approach them more lightly. Not in the sense of “I don’t care”, not at all. More in the sense that I’ve trained like crazy to prepare myself the best I can, so it would be a shame not to enjoy it, not to have fun during competitions. And it would also be a shame to put myself “at rock bottom”, mentally, when I’m preparing for this and when I actually love it. It’s a new way of looking at competition, and it feels liberating.
Skate Info Glace: We’re seeing a lot of very inconsistent results among the men this season. It really opens up the field, doesn’t it?
Adam: Yes, that’s competition, and I think it makes the sport even more interesting to watch. You can genuinely wonder what might happen, and that’s what makes it more entertaining.
Skate Info Glace: Have you been keeping an eye on what was happening in the other Grand Prix events?
Adam: No. It wasn’t about avoiding pressure, but I only skimmed through things. I saw a few skaters here and there, but I also had a lot to do. I’ve finished my graduate degree in digital communication and graphic web design. I was focused on other things, even if skating remains the priority. It did me good to do something else. It allowed me to disconnect a little, not stay constantly focused on skating.
Skate Info Glace: Is it also a way of anticipating your retirement from competitive skating one day?
Adam: Yes. A skater’s retirement can come quickly, for many reasons. It could simply be because I don’t want it anymore, because physically I can’t handle it, or because of an accident. I know very well that I won’t skate until I’m 50. For now, I’ve set myself the goal of going until 2030. After that, I’ll see year by year, depending on how I feel and whether I still want to continue. And also whether physically it’s still possible, but above all whether I still want it. That’s what matters most. Preparing a bit for the future isn’t really a plan B, but more projects I’d like to develop outside skating. And if I have time to make them happen, I’d like to start now.
Skate Info Glace: Philippe Candeloro is still doing backflips at 50!
Adam: Yes, but he’s not doing quads anymore (smiles). For shows, it’s different. Doing quads in a competitive program is physically demanding. By the way, our physio, Yannick Ponsero, is trying to land a triple Axel again at 40. He’s sharing his progress on social media. I’m fully supporting him.
Skate Info Glace: Have you ever thought about bringing back an old program for this Olympic season?
Adam: No, not at all.
Skate Info Glace: Not even Star Wars?
Adam: (laughs) Maybe later. We had thought about doing a long gala program to it. What’s cool is performing it with a lightsaber! This year, we wanted to create something different from what I had done before. I think the idea works. Now I just need to keep working on my programs, which aren’t easy, but it will come.
Skate Info Glace: In 2018, Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot skated a magical program to La Terre vue du ciel, the music of your short program. Did you tell yourself “maybe one day, me too”?
Adam: I remember their program very well. I was 17, and I didn’t think at all about skating to that music myself. This year, it was Cédric and Benoît who chose the music. Benoît had suggested this Philip Glass piece for the free a long time ago. He told me it would be great to build something on it later. He made me listen to it in 2022. That goes back a while! At the time, we agreed there was still a lot to work on and that it wasn’t the right moment.
Skate Info Glace: Has it ever happened that they proposed a piece of music and you thought, “No, really not, that doesn’t suit me at all”?
Adam: Yes, there have been pieces where I said no, I’m not a fan, I don’t like it. Or sometimes I thought: “Nice, we can try, but…”. And if it doesn’t work, we drop it. We once tried a tango. I wasn’t against the idea, but I struggled with it and didn’t feel it.
Skate Info Glace: On social media, your short program costume is getting a lot of attention. When we spoke to Benoît, he said it was great that it was creating reactions.
Adam: (laughs) Yes, I agree completely. It’s fine if some people don’t like the costume. Different opinions are normal, and it has already happened with other programs I’ve done. In a way, it gets people talking about the program. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Skate Info Glace: So you’re keeping the costume?
Adam: Yes!
Skate Info Glace: Last question, on a different topic. You haven’t done a triple loop in competition since 2020…?
Adam: Oh really, 2020? I would have said even longer… Ah, that must have been my last junior year, when the loop was mandatory. You’d have to check how long it’s been since I last put it in a free skate, because I hate that jump.
Skate Info Glace: Do you still train it from time to time?
Adam: Yes. I even did the quad. One day I told Cédric and Rodolphe: “I’m feeling good today, I’m doing a quad loop!” They weren’t convinced… And I landed it! That was two years ago.
Skate Info Glace: And you still hate the triple loop just as much?
Adam: Yes. It takes a lot of mental energy. Honestly, I’d rather do any other jump, even a quad. Even three quad toe loops! They take less energy out of me than the triple loop. I just don’t like it at all. I hope they never make it mandatory for seniors. I think if that happens, I’ll end my career. Or I’ll take a gap year (laughs).
A few words from his coach, Cédric Tour
About the choreo step: “It’s the first time he’d ever done that! It’s funny, because right before the program he told me: ‘I’m afraid I’m going to forget my choreo.’ I told him: ‘Are you serious? You know it by heart, even I know it.’ And now I’m making the connection: he was afraid he’d forget it, and he did that. But we realized it actually wasn’t bad! It wasn’t shocking at all in terms of the program layout.”
About the competition as a whole: “There are still a lot of positives. Yes, there were mistakes in the program, it’s not perfect, but in terms of his approach to competition, considering where we’re coming from, it’s all positive. We’ll run more simulations, wait a bit longer between the six-minute warm-up and the program, because the last time he was in that situation was at Europeans last year, I think. And the mistakes back then were more significant. Now we just need to keep going with the work we’re doing, and it will sort itself out. In training, he’s really capable of doing very high-quality jumps.”
Solène Mathieu - Skate Info Glace
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