France’s Kevin Aymoz claimed the men’s singles crown Thursday (20 February) at the Road to 26 Trophy, the figure skating test event for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
The competition is being held in the same arena that will host events next year: the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Assago, on the outskirts of Milan.
The Frenchman totalled 261.07 points to hold off short program winner Nikolaj Memola of Italy, who earned 254.21.
After a tight finish in the short program, with just 0.09 points separating third and fourth place, 2016 Youth Olympic singles champion Yamamoto Sato of Japan leapfrogged two-time Olympian Deniss Vasiljevs of Latvia for bronze. Yamamoto tallied 237.47 to Vasiljevs’ 226.46.
It’s an emotional win for Aymoz following a challenging 2023/24 season, where he withdrew from the World Championships after falling short of qualifying for the free skate at the European Championships.
“I’m really happy with today because my mind changed. I worked a lot in the year to come back, so I’m really, really happy today,” he said after his short program.
As Aymoz has returned to the ice this season, he hasn’t shied away from sharing the difficulties he’s faced in his return to form, including in an interview earlier this year with Olympics.com.
“It was only darkness and loneliness; it was really difficult. It was not only me as an athlete, the human inside of me was so down,” he recalled. “After the European Championships, it was like, ‘You have to work to see what’s inside of you. Who are you? What do you want to do? What’s life?'”
On Thursday, Aymoz opened his skate with a clean quadruple toeloop before executing a triple Axel, double Axel combo, and another triple Axel jump.
Memola, who took a surprising silver at the recent European Championships, was last to skate by virtue of his short program finish. His season’s best has been 177.69, and he needed almost that—171.98—to pass Aymoz and claim the title.
The Italian started strong with two quad Lutzes near the start of his skate, but as the second half of his program got underway, he fell, under-rotated a triple Lutz, and doubled a triple flip moments later.
In the end, Memola came up short, scoring 165.11 in the free skate.
