The figure skating season begins in earnest as the top returning Olympic medalists in all four disciplines headline Grand Prix France, live on Peacock this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Grand Prix is a series of six regular season competitions — where top skaters are scattered at different events, each skating twice — that qualify the top six per discipline into December’s Grand Prix Final.
2026 Grand Prix France Broadcast Schedule
| Day | Competition | Time (ET) | Platform |
| Friday | Rhythm Dance | 12 p.m. | Peacock |
| Women’s Short | 1:50 p.m. | Peacock | |
| Saturday | Men’s Short | 6:30 a.m. | Peacock |
| Free Dance | 8:20 a.m. | Peacock | |
| Pairs’ Short | 12 p.m. | Peacock | |
| Women’s Free | 1:30 p.m. | Peacock | |
| Highlights | 4 p.m. | NBC | |
| Highlights | 9 p.m. | Peacock, NBCSN | |
| Sunday | Pairs’ Free | 6:30 a.m. | Peacock |
| Men’s Free | 8 a.m. | Peacock, NBCSN | |
| Exhibition Gala | 2:30 p.m. | Peacock |
Mikhail Shaidorov, the surprise 2026 Olympic champion from Kazakhstan, seeks his first victory on the Grand Prix circuit. He previously finished second twice and third twice.
Though Shaidorov skipped the World Championships in March amid a post-Olympic whirlwind, he got back to work, visiting California in June to train with Rafael Arutyunyan, who coached Nathan Chen to Olympic gold in 2022, and choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne, who also worked with Chen.
Shaidorov picked up what he called a “little injury” in late summer, but still competed for the first time since Milan at Nepela Memorial in Slovakia in September, placing third. He recorded a personal best short program and landed six total quadruple jumps between his two skates, half getting slightly negative grades of execution.
He called his performance “not bad.”
“It was so difficult,” he told Eurosport, laughing, of the pressure of being the Olympic champ, “because (the) Olympic medal gives me a lot of responsibility. A gold medal is heavy.”
At Grand Prix France, Shaidorov faces France’s top singles skater -- Adam Siao Him Fa, who finished third, fourth and fifth at the last three World Championships.
Siao Him Fa won Grand Prix France in 2022, 2023 and 2024, but dealt with a stress fracture in his left ankle this past offseason. He also skated at Nepela, placing fifth.
Japan’s Kao Miura and Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko carry the most momentum into this week. Miura, Japan’s third man at the Olympics (13th overall), topped the free skate at the Tokyo Regionals earlier this month with three quads. Selevko, who finished last season on a high with a sixth-place finish at worlds, won Challenger Series events in August and September.
The American men entered are Jacob Sanchez, a 19-year-old who was fourth at nationals in January (nine hundredths of a point from third), and Jimmy Ma, a 31-year-old who has been competing on the Grand Prix since 2018.
Sanchez had success on the Junior Grand Prix, sweeping his three events in 2024, including the Final. With U.S. silver and bronze medalists Andrew Torgashev and Max Naumov sitting out the Grand Prix season, the door is open for Sanchez to establish himself as one of the top Americans on the senior international stage.
Ma, a showman who spent four months in the offseason deciding whether to keep competing, completes his Grand Prix set with his France debut. He previously competed at Skate America (best overall Grand Prix finish of fifth in 2021) and Skate Canada, plus the annual events in Japan, China and Finland.
This week also marks the senior Grand Prix debut for South Korean Seo Min-Kyu, an 18-year-old who won the world junior title in 2024 and the Junior Grand Prix Final in 2025.
This week’s women’s field is led by Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai of Japan, the top returning woman with Alysa Liu taking the season off and Kaori Sakamoto retired.
Nakai, 18, had her breakout in France in 2025, when she won her senior Grand Prix debut with a score that would have taken gold at the Milan Cortina Games.
This season, Nakai opened with a fourth-place finish at Kinoshita Group Cup in Japan, then landed a clean triple Axel in both programs to win the Tokyo Regionals earlier this month. That victory bodes well for this week, given the regionals field included Yuna Aoki and Rion Sumiyoshi, who are both entered in Grand Prix France.
Belgian Nina Pinzarrone, the breakout bronze medalist at last March’s worlds, is also competing in France. But she was sixth in two starts in September with a slew of under-rotated jumps after foot issues kept her from jumping for a long time in the offseason.
Italian Lara Naki Gutmann, who had career-best finishes last season at Europeans (bronze) and worlds (fifth), can improve on her best previous Grand Prix finish of third.
Sarah Everhardt, who placed fifth, third and fourth at the last three U.S. Championships, is the lone American entry at Grand Prix France. It’s her season debut after withdrawing before a planned start at Lombardia Trophy in September.
Everhardt was 11th in her most recent competition in her worlds debut last March, replacing Alysa Liu on three weeks’ notice. Her goal this season is to return to worlds.
The pairs’ field is led by Olympic silver medalists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia. They are the top returning pair from Milan after gold medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan retired.
Grand Prix France will be a measuring stick for Russians Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskiy, who compete internationally for the first time since placing fourth in pairs at the 2022 Olympics.
Russian and Belarusian skaters who do not support the war in Ukraine are allowed to return to Grand Prix-level competition as neutral athletes this season for the first time since the start of the war.
Last season, select singles skaters from Russia and Belarus were allowed to compete in an Olympic qualifier and, if they qualified, the Milan Cortina Games.
The biggest favorite at Grand Prix France comes in ice dance with Olympic gold medalists Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, who could be starting on the road to a home Winter Games in 2030.
Their top challengers this week could be Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, the U.S. bronze medalists who can continue a strong American ice dance tradition with Olympic silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates taking at least this season off.
Carreira and Ponomarenko had a tough 2025 Grand Prix season, missing the podium in both events, but fought back to make their first Olympic team (11th in Milan) and then place in the top 10 at worlds for a fourth consecutive year (eighth in Prague).
