“
I still have a long way to go, but I have my place among the best in the world.
These words from Adam Siao Him Fa to Olympics.com convey a strong confidence.
"After the Olympics, I questioned myself a lot about what I needed to progress further
."
At 22, the young skater is already showing a certain confidence and his speech is in line with his performance.
Champion of France in December and especially of Europe in January, the native of Bordeaux impresses.
Born in Gironde, Siao Him Fa comes from a family of Mauritian origin.
The youngest of the family, his brothers and sisters have all done figure skating.
He started very young and found himself on the ice at 4 years old.
A few years pass, "his ice rink" closes its doors and he is forced to train 250 km further south-east, in Toulouse.
The distance is such that it is difficult for the parents to assume the multiple weekly round trips.
The decision to move to Haute-Garonne to promote the hatching of young Adam is taken by the family.
At 16, he set sail for Poitiers to be trained by Brian Joubert.
The collaboration with the 2007 world champion and triple European champion (2004, 2007 and 2009) lasts three seasons and allows him to progress enormously.
After a stint in Courbevoie in the Paris suburbs, Siao Him Fa joined Nice last summer to train with Cédric Tour and Rodolphe Maréchal.
“I decided to make a fresh start.
I changed almost all my team and I left a little more in the sun.
I think I needed it and it feels good,”
he told Olympics.com.
A carefully considered choice.
“
I had thought of going abroad, but it seemed too complicated to me, I preferred to get closer to Benoît
(his choreographer)
, who lives in Avignon.
In my team, there is also Cédric, whom I have known for a long time.
I had the opportunity to work with him in 2021, I liked his way of bringing things technically.
And then there is also Rodolphe Maréchal, who trained me for six years in Toulouse, where I arrived at 10 years old.
For different reasons, I therefore have total confidence in this team.
he explained to L'Équipe on Tuesday.
The 2026 Games to succeed Candeloro?
His success at the European Championship last January comes 12 years after the last French continental title for men, obtained by Florent Amodio.
"
This title really motivated me and gave me more confidence,
" he told the team.
Four times vice-champion of France between 2019 and 2022, Siao Him Fa won gold for the first time, depriving his compatriot Kevin Aymoz of a 6th crown.
At the world championships which begin this Wednesday, the Japanese Shoma Uno presents himself as the huge favorite even if he is injured.
Behind him, the Frenchman is part of a group of contenders made up of Americans Ilia Malinin and Jason Brown and Canadian Keegan Messing, all in ambush behind the last world champion.
At the Beijing Olympics in 2021, he finished in an encouraging 14th place.
A rank obtained thanks to its free program inspired by Star Wars.
"
The goal of this program was for it to go viral, and not just for regular figure skaters
," he told Olympics.com.
The Milan-Cortina Games in 2026 are now one of its major objectives.
France, crowned in dance with Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron in China, has not won an Olympic medal for men since 1998 (bronze medal for Philippe Candeloro at the Nagano Games).
That's good, Siao Him Fa has openly announced that he is aiming for a medal there.
