The 2026 ISU Junior World Championships will take place March 3-8, 2026 at the Tondriaba Ice Hall in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn first held the Junior World Championships in 2015, and has since hosted the event two more times since (2020 and 2022).
Women
Japan’s Mao Shimada looks to continue making history at the Junior World Championships. The three-time Junior World Champion is looking for her fourth straight title, which is the most of any junior woman.
Shimada, who turned 18 in October, has won 17 international events since the 2022-2023 season. She is the most dominant skater in the junior field in the history of the sport. Now that she is age eligible for the senior level, it is expected that Shimada will move up to the senior ranks next season.
In Tallinn, Shimada will compete against a strong field of Korean and Japanese women.
Yuseong Kim of South Korea is making her return to the Junior World Championships. She last competed at the ISU Championships event in 2024, where she placed 15th. This season, she finished fifth at the Junior Grand Prix in Latvia (Riga Cup) and then won her second-career Junior Grand Prix gold medal in Azerbaijan. She qualified for her third-straight Junior Grand Prix Final, where she finished behind Shimada to claim the silver medal. In January, Kim competed at the 2026 South Korean Championships, winning the silver medal.
Japan’s Mei Okada finished behind Kim at the Junior Grand Prix Final and won the bronze medal. In her second season on the Junior Grand Prix, Okada won the gold medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Latvia (Riga Cup) and won the silver medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Bangkok.
Mayuko Oka is Japan’s third entry for the Junior World Championships. Like her teammates, Oka also competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final. She finished the event in sixth place. She won gold at the Junior Grand Prix event in Turkey and won the silver medal in Azerbaijan.
At the Japanese Figure Skating Championships, on the junior level, Shimada won gold with Okada and Oka taking silver and bronze respectively.
Of the medalists at the Junior World Championships last season, Shimada is the only one competing in the event in Tallinn. Last year’s silver medalist Jia Shin, of Korea, moved up to the senior level this season and recently placed 11th at the Winter Olympics in Milan. Elyce Lin-Gracey, of the U.S., took the bronze last season. She was not named to the World Junior Team. Last year’s fourth place finisher, Ami Nakai, of Japan, recently won the bronze medal at the Winter Olympics. She is still listed to compete at her first senior World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic later this month.
France’s Stefania Gladki finished fifth at last year’s Junior World Championships. She did not have as great of Junior Grand Prix as last season as she finished seventh and ninth in her events and did not qualify for the Final. She was sixth at the 2024 Junior Grand Prix Final.
After finishing in the top 10 at the Junior World Championships last season, Australia’s Hana Bath finished fourth at the Junior Grand Prix in Thailand this season before winning the silver medal at the Junior Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates. Bath also became the first Australian woman to land two clean triple Axels, landing a solo triple Axel and a triple Axel-triple loop combination. In January 2026, Bath switched coaching teams to the MF Figure Skating Academy, led by head coach Kensuke Nakaniwa.
Team USA will be represented by Angela Shao and Sophie Joline von Felten. Shao is the reigning U.S. junior champion. She did have one Junior Grand Prix event this season. She finished sixth at Junior Grand Prix in Latvia. The 15-year-old also won the bronze medal in the junior event at Santa Claus Cup. von Felten won two bronze medals on the Junior Grand Prix this season, one in Poland and one in Turkey. This season, she competed in the senior event at the U.S. Championships, where she finished in sixth place.
Others to watch for are China’s Yihan Wang, who finished 12th at last year’s World Championships and who was fourth at the Junior Grand Prix Final in 2024. This season, she won bronze at the Junior Grand Prix in Italy and was fourth in Azerbaijan. Georgia’s Inga Gurgenidze was sixth at Junior Worlds last season. She was sixth at the Junior Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates and won gold at Dragon Trophy and two silver medals at Bosphorus Cup and Crystal Skate.
Some changes were made from the preliminary assignments for the women. Italy’s Amanda Ghezzo will replace Anna Pezzetta. France’s Eve Dubecq withdrew from the event due to injury and will be replaced by Milana Mozeiko. Azerbaijan’s Arina Kalugina and United Arab Emirates’ Marie Bierwert have also withdrawn, but has not be replaced.
51 women will compete in the event.
Men
It’s another head-to-head match up between Japan’s Rio Nakata and Korea’s Minkyu Seo.
Last season at the Junior World Championships, Nakata took the title over Seo. The two went head-to-head at the Junior Grand Prix Final this past December with Nakata winning the short program, and Seo taking the free skate and the title. Seo is the 2024 World Junior Champion. Nakata won silver at that event.
Team USA’s Jacob Sanchez, who won the pewter medal at the senior event at the U.S. Championships and who was fourth at Junior Worlds last season, is looking for a medal in Tallinn. Sanchez was recently eighth at the Four Continents Championships. His teammate, Lucius Kazanecki, won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final after winning the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix event in Turkey and winning gold at the event at United Arab Emirates. He was ninth at the senior event at the U.S. Championships. This is Kazanecki’s first appearance at the Junior World Championships.
Belgium’s Denis Krouglov finished 22nd at the 2025 Junior World Championships. Since then, he has won two silver medals on the Junior Grand Prix and qualified for the Final, where he finished fourth. He was the first Belgian male skater to qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final since Kevin van der Perren back in the 2001-02 season. If he medals at Junior Worlds, he will become the first man from Belgium to medal at the event since van der Perren won silver in 2002.
Japan’s Taiga Nishino will make his World Junior Championship debut in Tallinn. Nishino was fifth at the Junior Grand Prix Final after winning the Junior Grand Prix event in Varese, Italy and taking a silver medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Gdansk, Poland. Teammate Daiya Ebihara finished fourth at both of his Junior Grand Prix events this season. This is his first Junior World Championships.
Korea’s Habin Choi finished fifth at the Junior World Championships last season. He was sixth at the Junior Grand Prix Final in December.
Yanhao Li made history last season by becoming the first skater from New Zealand to qualify for a Grand Prix Final. He finished the event in fifth place. At the 2025 Junior World Championships last year, he finished tenth. This season, Li finished fifth at the Junior Grand Prix in Riga, Latvia and won bronze at the Junior Grand Prix in Bangkok, Thailand. He is hoping to improve on his tenth place result at this year’s Junior World Championships.
Some changes were made from the preliminary assignments for the men. Canada’s Grayson Long withdrew from the event due to injury and will be replaced by David Bondar. The Czech Republic’s Jakub Tykal has withdrawn from the event and has been replaced by Tadeáš Václavík. Tadeáš’ older brother, Lukáš Václavík, will also be competing at the Junior World Championships. Lukas represents Slovakia.
43 men will compete in the men’s event.
Pairs
Though still age eligible for Junior Worlds, Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who recently won the silver medal at the Winter Olympics, will not defend their title in Tallinn.
Instead, the field will be lead by two Chinese and three Canadian teams, all who competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final this season.
China’s Rui Guo and Yiwen Zhang, who won gold at the Junior Grand Prix Final, are the favorites heading into this event. They will be joined by Yuxuan Chen and Yinbo Dong, who finished fifth at the Final. This is the first Junior World Championships for both teams.
Canada’s Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov were 10th at last year’s World Championships. They won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final in December. Teammates Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher finished behind Kemp and Elizarov at the Junior Grand Prix Final. They were eighth at last year’s Junior World Championships. Also competing at the Junior World Championships and representing Canada is Julia Quattrocchi and Etienne Lacasse. In their first season together, they qualified for the Final, where they finished sixth. This is the first Junior World Championships for this team.
Team USA’s Olivia Flores and Luke Wang will compete in their third Junior World Championship. The team won the silver medal in 2024 and were sixth last season. Flores and Wang moved up to the senior ranks this season and finished eighth at Skate America and seventh at the U.S. Championships. They will be joined by two-time U.S. junior champions Reagan Moss and Jakub Galbavy, who were 17th at the event last season. The team recently won gold on the junior level at Challenge Cup.
18 teams will compete in the junior pairs’ event.
Dance
Last year’s champions Noemi Maria Tali and Noah Lafornara moved up to senior rinks this season, but due to Lafornara sustaining an injury prior to Lombardia Trophy, they withdrew from that event and from most of their events this season. They did compete at Golden Spin of Zagreb, finishing in ninth place, and the Italian Championships, where they finished third.
So that means there will be a new champion this year in ice dance.
The favorites are Team USA’s Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukhin, who claimed the gold medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final in December. They also won their second U.S. junior title in January.
To learn more about the other ice-dance teams competing in Tallinn, visit Ice-Dance.com.
