The world craft skating championships return to us a year before the Olympic Games

Outside the Olympic Games, there is no more important competition in skating than the world craft skating championships which took place the previous year.

All skaters argue to qualify for spots in the Olympic teams of their country. The best can cement as a favorite of medals for the Milan Cortina 2026 games.

For American skaters, there is additional meaning. These worlds take place in Boston, the first in the United States since 2016, and the year preceding the Olympic Games for the first time since 2009.

The United States has reigning world champions in simple male (Ilia Malinin) and Ice Dance (Madison Chock and Evan Bates), as well as the best female skaters in the world in simple this season (Amber Glenn). The Americans could win three of the four world titles for the first time.

Remember the lost lives on the flight 5342

The Boston skating club, The organizational host of these worlds is one of the five artistic skating clubs that lost members in the outdoor collision Between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an army helicopter near Washington, DC, is January. 29.

This Wednesday, the first day of the competition, a tribute will take place between the short programs of women and pairs.

Malinin belongs to Washington Figure Skating Club, who also had skaters, parents of skaters and a coach on the flight 5342.

“I will always have them in my head and in my heart,” he said last week.

He devotes his performances this week to everyone’s memories on theft.

“Quadgod” jumps to new heights

Malinin, nicknamed “Quadgod”, 20 years old, for his control of jumps at four revolution, began this Olympic cycle in 2022 by becoming the first skater to land the only quad to do – the axel.

He did not stop there. Malinin continued to make history with unprecedented jumps collections in its programs. He won the world title last year by becoming the first skater to land six own quads in a program and won eight consecutive competitions dating from December 2023.

In his last two competitions, he tried seven quads in a single program. He came across one each time but always had the arrangement commemorated on a hooded sweatshirt.

Malinin said it was an “ideal objective” to try seven in Boston.

“We will just have to see how I will feel at that time, and if it was worth going to this risk or perhaps playing safely,” he said at a virtual press conference.

This led a journalist to tell Malinin that it is not his style to hold back.

“Well, not all the time,” said the skater, “but I think that sometimes, very rare occasions, I should play safely.”

Amber Glenn is the new star of American women

American figure skating has been defined by its main wives for so long, from Peggy Fleming to Dorothy Hamill in Michelle Kwan.

But the last American to win Olympic gold in simple feminine took place in 2002 (Sarah Hughes). The last to win a world title took place in 2006 (Kimmie Meissner).

Enter Glenn.

The 25 -year -old Texan won his first senior national title in 2024 during his ninth test during a career defined by difficulties. She even briefly left sport in 2015 to the recommendation of mental health professionals.

Glenn started this season with no international victory in his name.

Since then, she has won her five departures, including the biggest title for any American woman in 14 years in the final of the December Grand Prix, which is often a glimpse of the following March worlds.

Its brand is the triple axel. She is the only woman in the field of the world championships who managed to win the jump this year.

“It was a whirlwind of a season,” she said after the Grand Prix final in France. “I have somehow fought with this impostor syndrome. I’m just happy that my hard work is finally shown. ”

The three American women in the worlds are able to make the podium. Glenn is joined by 2024 the silver medalist Isabeau Levito, who missed three months this season due to a foot injury, and a 2022 bronze medalist, Alysa Liu, who ended a two -year retirement to compete this season.

They all seek to dethrone Kaori Sakamoto from Japan, who can become the first woman to win four consecutive world titles since the American Carol Heiss took five from 1956 to 1960.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates Eye Ice Dance Three-Peat

In 2011, an 18 -year -old choke went to get a new ice dance partner after her former partner retired. She spoke and tried with several men before choosing Bates, an Olympian from 2010 whose own partnership had just finished.

“Looking back, I can’t believe that she chose me to skate together,” said Bates in 2023. “I’m sure I would have continued to skate (if Chock chooses someone else) because I loved it, but it worked in this way, with gratitude.”

Chock and Bates have since made three Olympic teams together, have won six records of ice dance and five world champion medals, including gold in the last two.

After getting married last June, it could be the last worlds for Chock and Bates. They are trying to become the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world titles in 28 years.

Next year, they hope to win their first Olympic medals in all the colors of the dance competition, having already won gold in the team.

What is happening in Boston will determine if they enter the Olympic season as a pure and simple favorites or one of the many medal contenders.

This season, Chock and Bates have won the largest event so far – final of the December Grand Prix – but have also been defeated during other events by the best couples in Canada and Great Britain.

“We will treat him as if it was our last blow,” said Bates about the next 11 months. “We have been doing this for a very long time, both in their thirties. We are a married couple. There are things in our lives that we would also like to accomplish, such as developing a family and things like that. ”