Adam Siao Him Fa: “We saw, as the season went on, that learning to share my feelings to receive support in return was a key point for my performance.”
Adam Siao Him Fa on rethink his approach to rediscover the joy of the sport.
original source: franceinfo.fe dd. 10th February 2026 by Anais Brosseau
French figure skater Adam Siao Him Fa enters the Milan-Cortina Olympics as an ambitious contender, focusing on enjoyment and mental balance after a challenging and inconsistent season. Here’s a translation of her comments posted in Franceinfo.
“I’d say I’m determined, and yes, I’m ambitious – that comes with it.” When asked if he’s approaching the Milan-Cortina Olympics with ambition, French figure skater Adam Siao Him Fa partially sidesteps the question. To avoid getting lost in the stress of set goals, he’s chosen for several months now to focus on enjoyment. “I want to be able to say, once the event is over, that I really had fun.”
Third at the 2024 World Championships after a historic comeback, and fourth the previous year after a season slowed by injuries, the 25-year-old skater has the potential to win a medal.
But in this Olympic year, Adam Siao Him Fa has never managed to deliver two clean programs in the same competition. “He skated an almost perfect free skate at the Grand Prix de France [in October, in Angers] and a short program with all the elements at a competition in Nice,” recalls his coach Cedric Tour.
It’s been a rollercoaster season, starting off on the wrong foot. Despite an optimal summer preparation, Adam Siao Him Fa completely missed his season debut at the end of August, falling repeatedly while attempting a free skate with five quads. He didn’t do much better at the next event.
“That was a sign the approach wasn’t right,” he said a month and a half later, on the eve of the Grand Prix de France, where he finished second. “I talked a lot with my staff, my mental coach, my psychologist, and it did me good,” Adam Siao Him Fa continued, admitting in hindsight that he had become “a robot” obsessed with his Olympic preparation.
Faced with performances that didn’t reflect his training, the athlete and his coaches, Cedric Tour and Benoît Richaud, had to adjust. “We had a phase of discussions with him to try to understand where the underperformances were coming from; we were also confused,” admits Cedric Tour. “He was too focused on the possibility of a medal.”
The fifth quad was set aside. In training, the session content evolved: “We now change the training format quite a bit from week to week to avoid routine. In the past, we worked the programs a lot,” explains the skater.
Reserved and discreet, Adam Siao Him Fa also had to learn to share his feelings to receive support in return. “We saw, as the season went on, that this was a key point for my performance,” says the athlete.
To relax, the skater uses various techniques. “I talk with my coaches, listen to music, do breathing exercises,” says the Frenchman, who has also been seeing a psychologist since July. She has accompanied him to competitions twice. But finding balance is difficult: “At the Grand Prix Final [in early December], maybe I was too relaxed for the short program. I tried to rebalance for the free skate,” Adam Siao Him Fa admits.
At that Grand Prix Final, he finished fifth after another fall on his opening quad lutz in the short program. So, for the French Nationals, his coaches decided to lighten the technical content of the short program to reduce psychological pressure.
The quad lutz was replaced by a quad toe loop. His training stats for both jumps are similar, but in competition, the quad lutz regularly causes him trouble. “Psychologically, switching to a toe loop is a bit less stressful for him. It’s a way to approach the competition more calmly. But it’s still a tough program,” argues Cedric Tour.
After the French Nationals, they decided to shift their approach again. “After working on the mental side, we realized we might need to push him a bit more,” confides Cedric Tour.
The coach admits that after last season’s recurring injuries, he and Benoit Richaud tended to “protect” their athlete, to “baby” him out of fear of another injury. “But we realized that was making him soft. So we went back to basics, which is to work harder. That’s how he regains confidence.”
Skipping the European Championships in mid-January, a decision made before the season began, was thus confirmed. An intense six-week training cycle was scheduled right before the Olympics. The athlete was physically depleted at the Grand Prix Final in December, so the goal was to regain peak form and boost his confidence. “If he doesn’t have that volume, the technical and psychological confidence just isn’t there,” says his coach.
In addition, Cedric Tour asks his student to be “much more aggressive on the ice, to provoke success in what he does.” And he assures, he now finds him much more… “determined”: “That’s really what we wanted to see again, because that’s what will make the difference.”
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