By Hiro Yoshida

When last season ended prematurely for Kévin Aymoz in January of this year, his future in the sport looked to be in question. Fast forward to this week and the Frenchman is back skating at almost his very best and performing at home at the Grand Prix Final where his skating journey began.

After failing to advance from the short programme at the 2024 European Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, Aymoz did not appear in competition again until September when he participated in Masters de Patinage, a domestic event in France. It was not an auspicious start to the season as he came seventh overall. The prospects for his first Grand Prix assignment at Skate America were not promising, but he confounded expectations with a solid short and personal best free skating to claim a silver medal behind World champion Ilia Malinin. Less than a month later, he clinched another second place to secure his spot in the Grand Prix Final.

Aymoz puts his reversal of fortune down to his new training regime which has seen him take less ice time, but practice at a greater intensity.

“For six months now, I’m training half on my own, half with coaches,” he explained. “When I’m at the rink by myself, I have to kick my own ass to go because there’s no one behind me to push me. I have to go on the ice and work. Because I worked on my own, it worked. I knew, and I know, if I go out of the ice and I haven’t done my job, it will not be good. I have to push myself. I’m skating less now. Before, I was skating three hours per day and now I’m skating only twice for 45 minutes, but these two 45 minute sessions are so intense that when I skate, my brain is off, and I can enjoy skating. When I’m done with the session, I’m so proud, even if there’s many mistakes. Some practices are not good. It happens. We are athletes, so we are working to be good, and some practices are not. But I’m so happy because I did it myself, and the staff around me believed in me believing in myself.”

Aymoz has now come out the other side of what was probably the lowest point of his career at Europeans in January. Unknown to most of those watching him in Kaunas, he was experiencing a mental health crisis around that time. His performance in Lithuania made him realise that he needed to seek help.

“People don’t know I was really depressed,” he said. “I’m not going to say big words, but I had dark ideas. I was not believing in life anymore. I was just sad and was thinking should I be alive. I was at this point. I worked with a mental coach to just enjoy life. I wanted to withdraw from Europeans, but I had to go and do it. Everything happened for a reason. You go down only to go up. I’m almost happy this happened to me so I could learn that life is beautiful after that.”

After Europeans, Aymoz took a break from skating and gradually started to come back to the ice at his own pace.

“I took January and February off,” he said. “In March, I started again with skating a small bit. I was doing shows in France and in May and June, I built my programmes. I took a lot of vacations during July and August. I started to run my full programmes the first week of September.”

Aymoz is performing two brand new routines this season with both the short to “Everybody” by Martin Solveig and the free to “Van Gogh” by Virginio Aiello, “Hold on Tight” by Thomas Azier and “Destiny by Karl Hugo” self-choreographed.

“The short is a funky thing, and the free skate is really emotional,” he said. “This year the two programmes are from me, and I did choreograph them on my own, so I’m really proud of that. I was happy to show two programmes for the first time choreographed by myself.”

There had been disappointments in certain quarters that Aymoz chose not to keep his “Bolero” free from last season, but the Frenchman has plans to bring the acclaimed programme back. He does not have any negative associations with the routine itself despite some less than optimal performances at last year’s Grand Prix Final and French Championships.

“Bolero is such a beautiful piece,” he said. “It’s strong and next year is a really big season with big events. I’m keeping it for next year.

“Everyone was sad for me to not skate to Bolero this year. I’m just going to keep it away so you’re going to miss it, and then I’m going to bring it back to you.

“Last season was just a season with big highs and big lows, but at the end, I really liked the programme. I’m going to bring it differently, but I’m going to bring it because it’s one of the things I did create myself.”

Aymoz has spoken openly about how his boyfriend’s unconditional support and their relationship has helped him through the last turbulent twelve months.

“That means that we can love someone for who you are really, truly. He is the peace inside of me, the calm.”

His boyfriend was at Finlandia Trophy to see Aymoz compete live internationally for the first time which added a new dimension of pressure.

“I was stressed about that. I have to be good for him because he is good for me.

“He was right behind the judges. I did buy the tickets, but when I bought them, I thought, ‘You know where he’s going to sit. It’s going to stress you.’ When I got to place myself before the programme, I looked at him.”

Unfortunately, his boyfriend will not be in Grenoble to see him skate at the Grand Prix Final.

“He’s working. He’s a physio at a hospital. He has a huge schedule, so he’s not going to be at the Final. He has a beautiful job, saving lives.”

However, there will be no shortage of support from family and friends for Aymoz when he takes to the ice in the city where he grew up.

“My mom’s going to be there and my sister put herself on the list for the volunteers. I received an email three weeks ago from my skating that was so painful saying to register to be a volunteer at the Final. I didn’t want to be a volunteer at the final! My sister’s going to volunteer and open the door. It’s going to be fun. I’m happy it’s at home. It’s really the ice where I stepped for the first time.”

While the Grand Prix Final will no doubt be a memorable occasion, the serious business of the season for Aymoz gets under way soon after the event concludes.

“I have a lot of expectations for Europeans because it’s been five Europeans I go and I can get a medal, and five times in a row I don’t get a medal,” he said. “So maybe sixth time is a charm? But I don’t care if I don’t get it. I’m just happy to skate, and I’m just going to go and skate and see whatever. The main goal is to go to Worlds and try to qualify as many spots as we can for France. The qualification for Europeans is at Nationals. I hope I did qualify myself with these two competitions, and I proved to the Federation I’m on the top of the world with good skaters.”

This season’s French Championships take place just under two weeks after the Grand Prix Final ends so unlike last season there will be a significant gap between the two competitions. It will also be a bonus that transcontinental travel will not be involved.

“We have a lot of time. Last time, Nationals was so difficult. I was so down after the Final and 48 hours after the long I was on the six minute warm up of the short programme at Nationals. That was really difficult.

“That this occurred was good because now I know I cannot do that. Everything means something.”

With his free for the 2026 Olympic season already made, all Aymoz has left to decide is what direction he wants to go for his short and if the Milano-Cortina Games will definitely be his last given the 2030 Olympics are currently scheduled to be held in France.

“For the short programme, I don’t know. Do I bring something fun, like this short programme to make a party in the rink, or do I choose something more skateable? I have time to choose music. I cross my fingers, and after it will be bye guys. I think it’s time to retire. If the next Games are in France, I will take two years off, and if my body is in shape, I might try to qualify again. Who knows? I’m taking every season by season.”