Background
Chafik Besseghier was born in Grenoble, France.
Chafik Besseghier was born in Grenoble, France.
He finished in the top ten at the 2014 World Championships.
Early years
Besseghier began skating at a relatively late age, almost 13, in August 2002. Within a year, he had landed all the double jumps, and was landing triples by the end of his second year. Training in Grenoble, he competed mostly domestically before making his International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix debut in 2008.
2009 to 2012
In 2010, he was invited to his first senior Grand Prix event, the 2010 Trophée Éric Bompard.
After landing his first quadruple-triple jump combination in the short program, he was in fourth place, with the second-highest technical score. He made several mistakes in the free skate and placed fifth overall.
Prior to the 2011-2012 season, Besseghier spent several months working with Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Besseghier again competed at the Trophée Éric Bompard, coming in ninth.
At the end of the season, he moved from Grenoble to Paris.
2013–present
Besseghier injured his ankle in October 2013 at the Master"s de Patinage. He withdrew from his two Grand Prix assignments, the 2013 Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai Trophy and 2013 Trophée Éric Bompard. Besseghier placed 12th at the 2014 European Championships in Budapest.
After scoring well at the International Challenge Cup, he was selected for his first World Championships.
Setting personal best scores in both programs, he finished ninth overall at the event in Saitama, Japan. In the 2014-2015 season, Besseghier was selected to compete at two Grand Prix events, the 2014 Skate America and 2014 Trophée Éric Bompard.
He finished 7th and 9th at the two events, respectively. He withdrew from the 2015 Europeans and placed 18th at the 2015 Worlds.
In late August 2015, Besseghier began training under Russian coach Elena Buianova in Moscow.
He began the 2015-2016 season by winning gold at the Lombardia Trophy and International Cup of Nice, before winning the French national title in December. He withdrew from the 2016 European Championships after rupturing a ligament in his right ankle.