Japan’s Yuna Aoki seized the lead in the women’s short program at Grand Prix France, the first event of the six-event Grand Prix figure skating regular season.

Aoki, who went from missing Japan’s Olympic team to winning the Four Continents Championship last January, landed a triple Lutz-triple loop combination (negatively graded), double Axel and triple flip in her 76.31-point program.

She leads by 3.68 over Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia.

Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai of Japan, the top returning skater this season from the Milan Cortina Games, is third, 5.65 points behind, after popping her opening Axel.

Sarah Everhardt, the lone American in the field, is ninth after falling on her opening triple Lutz.

Grand Prix France continues Saturday with the men’s short program, free dance, pairs’ short and women’s free skate, all live on Peacock.

Earlier Friday, Olympic gold medalists Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron opened their season by topping the rhythm dance at their home Grand Prix.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who teamed up last year, totaled 82.56 points for their rhythm and waltz program, the world’s second-best score on the young season despite a one-point time violation.

They lead by 4.66 over Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Georgia, who own the world’s top rhythm dance and total scores this season from Trialeti Trophy, their home Challenger Series event, three weeks ago.

Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko are just seven hundredths of a point behind Davis and Smolkin. They are in position to return to a Grand Prix podium after placing fourth and fifth in their two starts last fall.