American figure skater Isabeau Levito is the winner of the 2023 Grand Prix de France in the women’s singles competition!
The 16-year-old secured her victory with a total of 203.22 points in Saturday’s short program after placing third in the free skate on Friday with a score of 131.39, according to CNN.
“I guess we’ll call screwing up the second half of my routine a dramatic finish,” Levito said, per Olympics.com, of the mistakes she made in her routine Friday.
“I’m very happy with the performance of the first half of my program, but I’m glad I got through this and I’ll definitely work on it a lot more when I get back to training,” she added.
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Levito topped runner-up Nina Pinzarrone with a score of 198.80 by 4.42 points. Japan’s Rion Sumiyoshi took third place with a score of 197.76, according to the International Skating Union (ISU).
According to NBC Sports, Levito also had the highest artistic rating of the competition at 2.72 points.
Levita’s win marks her first career Grand Prix gold medal, as she took silver in last year’s Grand Prix Final, according to US Figure Skating’s FanZone.
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According to NBC Sports, Levito’s win also makes her the first American skater to win a Grand Prix title since Ashley Wagner at the 2016 Skate America.
The achievement also makes her the youngest American figure skater since Sarah Hughes won at age 16 in 2001, the paper reported.
After winning the Grand Prix de France in Angers — the third of six events in the ISU Grand Prix of Art Skating series — Levito earned her spot to compete in next month’s Grand Prix Final in Beijing.
“I’m very proud that I was able to improve on the results compared to last season,” said Levito, per Olympics.com. “It was my goal to win one of my Grand Prix at least to really make sure I get to the final. I’m really happy to have progressed in this aspect.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education