France is hosting the 2012 World Championships for the first time after twelve years (they were held in Nice too in 2000).
The French team is not the strongest of all and probably any French skater will be able to fight for a gold medal, however the home crowd might lift their athletes to a podium position.
Ice dance and men's competition will be the most challenging for the French team.
The dance champions, Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat were the potential favourites for the bronze medal. Althought, Nathalie broke her nose during practice. She needed a surgery but, because that would have compromised her preparation for Worlds, she decided to postpone it. Now she is practising wearing a mask that reduces pain.
Pechalat/Bourzat have improved a lot in these last two years and would have probably gained the bronze medal without this injury. Their participation to Worlds is not confirmed yet, anyway Nathalie seems very determined to go out there and give her best. Let's just hope these championships won't be too painful for her.
In the men's competition France has two brilliant skaters: Florent Amodio and Brian Joubert.
Florent Amodio had two amazing seasons in 2011 and 2012. He competed at European Championships for the first time in his career in 2011 and won them. This year he is the European bronze medalist and the someone's favourite for a medal in Nice. He is a showman and the home crowd will love him.
Former World champion, Brian Joubert had a tough season and he's struggling to find his competitiveness back. This year he won National Championships and Challenge Cup but failed in his Grand Prix series and Europeans (this was the first time he didn't medal at Euros). Anyway his will to do well at worlds is cleared by the fact that he is attempting two quads in the short program (he nailed that at Challenge Cup).
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