Gracie Gold recorded her lowest-scoring short program in nearly four years on Friday, piling onto struggles that may stem from her world championships disaster in April.
The U.S. champion erred on all three of her jumping passes at Trophée de France, punctuated by popping her final Axel attempt.
Gold totaled 54.87 points, her lowest since the January 2013 U.S. Championships, when she finished ninth in the short program and won the free skate to place second overall in her senior-level breakout.
That kind of turnaround in Saturday’s free skate in Paris appears very unlikely, even though this competition was the site of Gold’s best Grand Prix short program a year ago.