Alysa Liu leads at Cup of China as Olympic champs Sui and Han make comeback

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CHONGQING, China (AP) — After switching back to her old short program, world champion Alysa Liu of the United States took the lead in her first figure skating Grand Prix of the season at the Cup of China on Friday.

Liu scored 74.61 points with a clean skate to lead Japan's Rinka Watanabe by 0.6 points ahead of Saturday’s free skate. U.S. champion Amber Glenn is third on 73.04 after putting a hand down on the landing of her triple flip-triple toeloop combination.

It was Liu's first competitive skate since she switched back to her short program from last season, amid an investigation involving one of the artists who performed the music for the program she had been developing for 2025-26.

Shun Sato is on course to win the men's Cup of China gold for the second year running after landing a quadruple lutz and a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination on his way to scoring 94.13. Italy's Daniel Grassl was second on 90.42 and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov third on 88.33.

Making a long-awaited comeback after more than three years, Olympic pairs champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong placed third in the pairs short program after Sui fell on the opening jump.

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia led the way on 77.77, with Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii on 73.41. Sui and Han scored 72.45.

In ice dance, three-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States lead after Friday's rhythm dance with a score of 84.44.

In second place are U.S. skaters Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik on 80.43, with France's Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud third on 77.62.

All four disciplines at the Cup of China finish Saturday.

The Grand Prix de France is the first of six regular season Grand Prix events building to a final in December. It’s a key test for skaters eyeing medals at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.

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