US figure skater Ilia Malinin and Japan's Kaori Sakamoto headline the Olympic season opener at the elite ISU Grand Prix de France in Angers starting Friday, looking to lay the groundwork for gold at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

The first of the six-stop ISU Grand Prix series heads for western France from October 17-19 as competitors build towards the Olympics which get under way on February 6 in northern Italy.

Skaters compete in two of the six-leg series with the top ranked qualifying for the Grand Prix Final, which this season is set for Nagoya, Japan, from December 4-7.

Quadruple-jumping maestro Malinin is favourite to follow retired fellow American Nathan Chen onto the top of the Olympic men's podium in what will be the 20-year-old's first Winter Games.

Malinin claimed a second

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