Aymoz began learning to skate in 2003.[1] He became the French national junior bronze medalist in the 2012–2013 season and repeated the following season.
2014–2015 season: Senior international debut
Aymoz started the 2014–2015 season on the junior level, winning gold at the Lombardia Trophy and bronze at the International Cup of Nice. Making his senior international debut, he finished eighth at the 2014 NRW Trophy at the end of November. He placed fifth on the senior level at the French Championships, held in December, before winning the national junior title in February 2015. Aymoz ended his season with a senior international medal, silver at the Coupe du Printemps in March.
In February 2016, Aymoz won his second French national junior title.[3] In March, he represented France at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary; he qualified for the free skate by placing fifth in the short program. He finished ninth overall after placing eleventh in the free skating. By the end of the season, he was training in both Grenoble and Annecy, overseen by Cartau, Didier Lucine, Claudine Lucine, and Sophie Golaz.[4]
2016–2017 season: First national title
In the first half of the season, Aymoz was coached by Didier Lucine, Sophie Golaz, and Véronique Cartau in Annecy.[5] In December 2016, he won the French national title. On 16 January 2017, the FFSG reported that Aymoz had decided to return to Grenoble and that the federation had sent Katia Krier for the intermediary period.[6] He placed fifteenth at the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
At the 2019 European Championships, Aymoz placed fourth in both the short program and free skate, finishing fourth overall, and only 0.74 points behind bronze medalist Matteo Rizzo of Italy.[8] At the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, he placed eleventh, setting a new personal best in the short program and total score.
Aymoz again began his season on the Challenger series at the 2019 Autumn Classic International, where he won the silver medal with second-place finishes in both segments. Aymoz landed two quads in a free skate for the first time.[9]
On the Grand Prix, Aymoz competed first at the 2019 Internationaux de France, where a fall on his combination attempt in the short program left him in third place, distantly behind Nathan Chen and Alexander Samarin but only a few points ahead of Shoma Uno.[10] He placed second in the free skate, behind Chen, winning the bronze medal overall.[11] Aymoz then continued this successful streak by winning silver at the following NHK Trophy and thereby qualifying for the Grand Prix Final. He was second in the short program behind Yuzuru Hanyu, making only a small error on his quad toe loop, and third in the free skate behind Hanyu and Roman Sadovsky.[12][13] Competing at the Final, Aymoz placed third in the short program, skating cleanly despite a musical mishap that initially played the music of competitor Dmitri Aliev.[14] Third in the free skate as well with only one error with a fall on an underrotated quad toe, he won the bronze medal, the first Frenchman to medal at the Final since Brian Joubert in 2006.[15]
After winning the French national title again, Aymoz headed into the 2020 European Championships as one of the favourites to take the title. However, in what commentators dubbed "a day to forget" for the skater, all three of his jumping passes failed in the short program.[16] He placed twenty-sixth in that segment, failing to qualify for the free skate, to the "shock" of much of the audience.[17] This proved to be Aymoz's final competition for the season, as the World Championships in Montreal were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[18]
2020–2021 season
With the pandemic continuing to affect international travel, the ISU opted to assign the Grand Prix based mainly on geographic location, with Aymoz being assigned to the 2020 Internationaux de France. However, this event was subsequently cancelled.[19] In February, Aymoz won his fourth national title.[20] On 1 March, he was named to the team for the 2021 World Championships.[21]
Competing in Stockholm, Aymoz placed ninth in the short program.[22] Ninth in the free skate as well; he held ninth place overall.[23] Aymoz's result qualified one men's berth for France at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the possibility of a second to be earned later.[24] He was subsequently announced as part of the French team for the 2021 World Team Trophy.[25] On 8 April, he was named as team captain. Aymoz placed fourth in both the short program and the free skate, while Team France finished in fifth place.[26][27][28]
2021–2022 season: Beijing Olympics
Aymoz recruited hip hop choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche to work on his programs for the new season, seeing someone from outside the skating world bring an "unexpected" perspective. Due to a case of athletic pubalgia, he was unable to practice on ice for two months, resuming training three weeks before Master's de Patinage, where he attempted less than his normal technical difficulty and won the bronze medal.[29] He subsequently attempted to compete at the 2021 Skate America but withdrew after falling on all three jumping passes in the short program, citing his injury.[30] He was ninth at the 2021 Internationaux de France, skating with reduced technical content.[31]
After winning the French national title, Aymoz was named to the French Olympic team. Competing at the 2022 European Championships, he was tenth in the short program but rose to fourth in the free skate, finishing seventh overall.[32]
Competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Aymoz placed tenth in the short program of the men's event, despite tripling a planned quad Salchow jump.[33] Jump errors in the free skate saw him rank fifteenth in that segment, but he finished twelfth overall.[34] He was eleventh at the 2022 World Championships to conclude the season.[35]
2022–2023 season: Top 5 at World
After a difficult Olympic season, Aymoz contemplated whether he had the desire to continue for another four years to the 2026 Winter Olympics. He said he "took a summer break–reading books and watching TV shows. And then I was like: Okay, I'm ready to go again."[36] For his free program for the season, he drew inspiration from Madeline Miller's novel The Song of Achilles, about the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Using primarily music from Gladiator, he explained, "my story is not about gladiators, but the music touches my heart, and it's the story of two people fighting for love."[37]
Aymoz began the new season in September at the 2022 U.S. Classic. After winning the short program, placing ahead of American rising star Ilia Malinin, he finished second in the free skate and overall.[36] He then traveled to France to compete at the Master's de Patinage but sustained an ankle injury while there and had to withdraw from the 2022 Grand Prix de France. After six weeks of recovery, he came back to win his first Challenger gold medal at the 2022 Warsaw Cup.[38][39] The following week at 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, he again won the short program over Malinin, despite not yet attempting any quad jumps post-injury.[38] He was third in the free skate and won the bronze medal overall, a result of which he said he was "really proud."[40][37]
At the French championships, Aymoz finished second behind Adam Siao Him Fa.[41] He then competed at the 2023 European Championships, coming fourth in the short program after singling his triple Axel attempt.[42][43] He was fourth in the free skate as well, and finished fourth overall, 7.09 points behind Swiss bronze medalist Lukas Britschgi.[44][45]
Aymoz finished fifth in the short program at the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, saying that he had entered the competition without any "special goals" as to his placement, adding "I just want to be here and enjoy myself."[46] He went on to finish fourth in the free skate, setting a new personal best score in the segment, and finishing fourth overall. He was less than sixth points behind American bronze medalist Ilia Malinin.[47] This was the best world results for a Frenchman in eleven years, since Brian Joubert's 4th place in 2012. Subsequently, Aymoz was named for the second time in a raw captain of the French team at the 2023 World Team Trophy. He set a new personal best score of 100.58 in the short program, finishing third in the segment and clearing the 100-point threshold for the first time in his career, which he celebrated.[48] He came fourth in the free skate adding back two quads for the first time of the season, while Team France finished fifth overall at the event.[49]
2023–2024 season
Aymoz began the season at the 2023 Autumn Classic International, winning the silver medal.[35] He was invited to participate in the Japan Open as part of Team Europe. He came fourth of six in the men's event, while the team won the bronze medal.[50] On the Grand Prix, Aymoz won the silver medal at the 2023 Skate America.[51] He went on to take the bronze at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo, recovering from short program errors that had seen him place fifth in that segment. He revealed afterward that he was working toward reintroducing the quad Salchow into competition, wanting to return to performing two quad types.[52]
Qualifying to the 2023–24 Grand Prix Final, Aymoz finished fifth in the short program, his lone mistake being a foot down on the landing of his triple Axel. He had a poor free skate, falling three times, and dropping to sixth place.[53] He then returned to France for the national championships in Vaujany, where he came second in the short program, but a "catastrophe" in the free skate saw him tenth in that segment, and drop to seventh place overall.[54]
Despite his lower national championship ranking, Aymoz was sent to the 2024 European Championships in Kaunas. His struggles continued, and he placed thirty-first in the short program, failing to qualify for the free skate.[55] Afterward, he announced his withdrawal from the 2024 World Championships and all other competitions for the rest of the season, citing a need to work on his mental health and prepare for the next two seasons.[56]
2024–2025 season
Aymoz struggled with depression during his time off; he was given support from those close to him and worked with a mental coach and therapists. He began his season at the Master's de Patinage, though he had resumed training his programs less than two weeks beforehand and had not yet skated an entire run-through that season.[57] Aymoz performed poorly in the free skate, falling four times and finishing in seventh place.[58] He later said, "I knew I could manage the short program, but you can't fake it in a free skate. You're either ready, or you're not. Sometimes, the magic of sport and adrenaline help, but I wasn't ready."[57]
A few weeks later, Aymoz competed at the first of his two Grand Prix assignments, Skate America. He struggled in practices and later said he was not sure if he was ready to compete, but he placed fourth in the short program and earned the best component scores of the field. In the free skate, he earned a personal best score and won that segment of the competition, and he won the silver medal behind Ilia Malinin.[58]
Aymoz took several days off to rest before his next competition, the 2024 Finlandia Trophy.[57] He was third in the short program; afterward, he said that he was attempting to not succumb to the stress of trying to qualify for the Grand Prix Final, which would be held in his home rink in Grenoble. In the free skate, he fell on his opening quad toe loop attempt and had a poor exit on his second attempt at the jump. However, he performed more cleanly in the second half of the program and finished second overall behind Yuma Kagiyama. He said of his free skate, "I had to prove to myself I could get up and when I fell on the quad toe, I was almost felt like, 'Yes, now I have another chance to prove to everyone that I can get up'." Aymoz's placements at his Grand Prix events qualified him for the Grand Prix Final.[59]
Personal life
Aymoz is openly gay and was among the six French LGBT athletes featured in the documentary We Need to Talk.[60][61]
Awards
Kevin Aymoz has been nominated two times to the new ISU Skating Award.[62]
^"Kevin AYMOZ à Grenoble" [Kevin Aymoz in Grenoble] (PDF) (in French). Fédération Française des Sports de Glace. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 September 2017.
