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The World Artistic Skating Championships are always a big problem. And this year’s edition, which begins on Wednesday in Boston, has more weight than usual.
In addition to deciding the world champions of this season (and silver and bronze medalists), the next five days of competition will determine how many tickets each country receives for the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.
We will enter how it works later. But first, let’s see who to see.
Canadians to look
Last year in Montreal, the Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamp couples team excited the worshiper crowd by capturing the first world artistic skating title in Canada since 2018, while ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier obtained a money for their third-party medal in four years.
These two duos remain the main contenders of Canada medals this week in Boston, and that will probably also be the case of the Olympic Games.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps began this season with force, winning their two tasks of the Grand Prize in the fall. There were more good news in December when the Stellato-Dudek, born in Chicago, finally became a Canadian citizen, cleaning the way for the Montreal resident to compete for Canada in the Olympic Games (the citizenship requirements for other international skating events are less strict).
The figurative skating show | Previous view of the 2025 World Championship:
The World Artistic Skating Championships of 2025 are located in Boston, where Amber Glenn and Ilia Malinin compete in their homeland. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier seek to win the elusive Gold World Gold and Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps defend their title. The Olympic quota points are at stake for Canadian individual skaters and listen to Devin Heroux, our man on the floor on Worlds.
But health problems have been persecuted since then. A Deschamps disease forced them to leave the final of the Grand Prix in December, and their preparations for the four continents championship last month were affected when Stellato-Dudek falls hard in practice and bruised his back. A rough program put the Canadians behind the eight ball before they recovered with their best free skate of the season to climb the silver behind the 2023 world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan.
Gilles and Poirier are the main Canadian ice dancers in the era after Virtue and Moir. They have won four consecutive national titles (excluding their absence in 2023, when Gilles was recovering from surgery for ovarian cancer) and reached the podium in the world championship in 2021 (bronze), 2023 (bronze again) and 2024 (silver).
Although they did not end better than the seventh in their two Olympic appearances, Gilles and Poirier won the prestigious final prize of two seasons. They took gold and silver in their two regular events of the Grand Prix this season before finishing fifth place in the final after Poirier stumbled upon the boards during their short program. But the Canadians repeated as four continent champions last month, defeating the renowned world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States.
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The three -time Canadian champion Madeline Schizas finds growth and renewal by learning to enjoy the process, while preparing for her fifth world championship.
Canada has another solid ice dance team in Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, who finished fifth in last year’s worlds and only took bronze in the four continents for the second time. The other Canadian ice dancers who compete this week are Alicia Fabbri and Paul yesterday, who are making their debut in the world.
Two other tandems will join Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps in the couples event. Lia Pereira and Treant Michaud finished eighth in the world of 2024 and took bronze on the four continents of this year for their first medal in an international championship (although closed to Europeans). Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier were 15 in the worlds last year.
While Canada described the three maximum entries in couples and ice dance, it has only one skater in each of the individual events, and none of them is expected to compete for a medal. Madeline Schizas held the 18th position in the women’s competition in last year’s worlds, while Roman Sadovsky was 19 in men.
International to see
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan will try to become the first skater in 65 years to win four consecutive world titles of women. The season began winning his two regular tasks of the Grand Prix, but he only achieved a bronze in the final when American Amber Glenn, also a double winner on the tour, took the gold.
In the male event, the American Ilya Malinin is still the guy who expires after winning her first world title last year. The God quad of now 20 years nailed an amazing six of them in the free skate in Montreal (including his firm Quad Axel, which no one else has landed in competition) to deny Shoma one of a three -repetition star and send the Japanese star to retirement. Malinin swept his great prize events this season, including his second consecutive final victory.
In pairs, the challengers of the Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps title include the aforementioned Miura and Kihara of Japan, who were world champions in 2023 and silver medalists last year; and Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, who took bronze in the worlds of Montreal and are the final champions of the consecutive Grand Prize.
In the ice dance, Gilles and Poirier will try to prevent Chock and Bates from capturing their third consecutive world title after annoying the American married couple on the four continents. Chock and Bates also lost to Lilah Fear from Great Britain and Lewis Gibson in Home Ice at the Skate America Grand Prix, but won their second consecutive final.
How Olympic qualification works
Each country is allowed up to three entries in each event (women, men, couples and ice dance) at next year’s winter Games in Italy. Without entering all the ins and outs of the arcane system of Olympic fees, this is what that means for Canada:
* In couples and ice dance, where Canada has three teams each in Boston, only the two best Canadian results will count for the Olympic qualification. If those two placements add 13 or less (for example, a third place and one tenth), Canada wins three Olympic points. If the sum is 14 or more, get two. In the unlikely case that the sum is greater than 28, Canada only gets one place.
* In the events of men and women, who have only one Canadian every week, Canada needs an end among the 10 best to receive two Olympic places. Otherwise, you will get only one.
In addition, remember that Canadian skaters cannot be described directly to the Olympic Games in these worlds. The National Government body will grant its places to specific athletes after the Canadian championships next January.
How to look
You can see every live skating on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here is the full transmission schedule:
Wednesday – Short women’s program at 12:05 pm et, pairs at 6:15 pm et.
Thursday – Short of men at 11:05 am et, free pairs at 6:15 pm et.
Friday – Ice rhythm dance at 11:15 am et, Women’s Free at 6 pm et.
Saturday – Ice Dance Free at 1:30 pm et, Men’s Free at 6 pm et.
Sunday – Exhibition gala at 2 pm et.
The CBC TV network will transmit additional coverage of the worlds on Saturday from 3 to 6 pm et and on Sunday from 2 to 4 pm in its local time zone.
For more information about the worlds, see this preview of CBC Sports’ That figurative skating show.
