Philippe Candeloro (born 17 February 1972) is a French former competitive figure skater. He is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (1994, 1998), a two-time World medalist (1994 silver, 1995 bronze), a two-time European silver medalist (1993, 1997), and a four-time French national champion (1994–1997). He has been a commentator for French television during figure skating events at the Olympics. He also made special appearance as himself and a villain's victim named "Frozer" in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.

Early years

Philippe Candeloro was born in Courbevoie, the youngest of four children. His father, Luigi, was a mason, and, a few years after Philippe's birth, built a family home in the Parisian suburb of Colombes.

Early in his childhood Candeloro enjoyed swimming and elastic springboard. In 1979, at age seven, he began taking weekly ice skating lessons. During one of his first lessons, trainer André Brunet noted Candeloro's potential and invited him to increase his skating practices. At first, he participated in the village's hockey team but quickly veered into figure skating. He stole one of his first pairs of skates. His mother paid for them when the theft was discovered.

Skating career

Within a few years of stepping onto the ice, Candeloro found himself on the fast track with the French figure skating federation. He was invited to a summer training camp at Font-Romeu, which would become an annual event for him. When he was 10, the French Federation offered him a place at the prestigious national training center in Paris, INSEP. Candeloro refused this invitation, opting instead to continue training in Colombes with Brunet. At the age of 16, he left school to concentrate full-time on his training.

By sixteen, Candeloro was receiving attention from both the French Federation and the international skating community. He participated in the closing ceremony at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and began to work with choreographer Natacha Dabadie.

Candeloro used music from the soundtrack of Conan the Barbarian in his free skating program during the 1992–93 season, wearing a tunic over what appeared to be skins and furs over dark brown trousers covered with fur shin guards. The program's choreography emphasized his "somewhat wild skating style" and included what would become his signature spin, in which he would shoot both his feet from out of a squat and completing it on his shins. For the 1993–94 Olympic season, he set both his short and free skating programs to music from the Godfather films. He wore loose brown and beige striped trousers and an off-white shirt and skated to tarantella rhythms. As Ellyn Kestnbaum put it, he portrayed "a young tough, appearing to yell at someone in the distance, gesticulating vehemently, snatching off the chain around his neck, even directing obscene gestures at the audience". He wore black trousers and a black shirt closed by a gold chain across his collar for his free skating program, with slicked-back hair. He executed movements that portrayed the character Don Corleone, an older, more powerful man. He continued to use the Godfather themes in later seasons, whitening his hair for his free skating program. In the 1994–95 season, Candeloro included his signature spin in his Godfather program. The International Skating Union (ISU), the organization that regulates figure skating, had ruled that skaters had to execute only movements that were done with both skates on the ice during competitions. At Skate America in 1993, Candeloro protested the rule change by standing still in front of the judges instead of entering into the scratch spin, and twirled his hand to indicate the forbidden element. Ellyn Kestnbaum called the gesture "a sarcastic comment on the framing structure of competitive rules".

Candeloro has worked as a sports journalist. During the 2006 Olympics, Candeloro stirred controversy by commenting that Olympic champion Shizuka Arakawa was "worth a bowl of rice" after rising from third place to win the gold medal. Apologizing to the Japanese ambassador to France, Hiroshi Hirabayashi, who was unaware of the comment, French public television stated, "We were taken aback by the comment." In 2014, Candeloro and his co-commentator Nelson Montfort were criticized for some of their comments on female skaters at the Sochi Olympics. although it was closed by the city's next mayor in 2024, against his protests.

Personal life

Candeloro is married to ballet dancer Olivia Darmon,

External sources

  • Free skating program, 1994 World Figure Skating Championships (YouTube clip)