By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
Photos by Robin Ritoss
Last year at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, Canada’s Les Supremes, who had won the last three World championships, found themselves off of the podium, finishing in an upsetting fourth place.
This season, the team sought redemption and to reclaim their title. Entering the World Championships in Salzburg, Austria, the team out of Montreal, Quebec won both their Challenger Series events -Marie Lundmark Trophy and Lumiere Cup. They also won Riga Amber Cup, and the Canadian National title for the third straight year.
Given their undefeated season, it came as no surprise to see Les Supremes as the leaders after the short program. Their “Hymne à l’amour” program consisted of all level four elements that were executed at high speed and in perfect unison. The short program earned a score of 83.24, which a little more than a point off their season’s best score of 84.61, which was set at Marie Lundmark Trophy. They had an almost four point lead over Team USA’s Haydenettes.
In theI “Firebird” free skate, Les Supremes once again demonstrated great unison and speed. They earned level-four on seven of their elements, including their intersection and group lift. However, they lost points in the pivoting block as they had a fall. They earned a free skate score of 149.76, which was fourth in the free skate. Overall, they earned a score of 233.00, and their lead after the short program helped them take home their fourth title.
“We were super happy when we found out our score,” said Olivia di Giandomenico of Les Supremes. ” Even though we had a little mistake in the free that doesn’t really matter and we were just happy to perform well and give a show to the crowd and do our “Firebird” program one last time.
“I think we’re just super happy with both days, how it went. We’ve been working really hard all season and we’re happy that at the competition we were able to put out two strong skates,” said Julia Bernardo of Les Supremes.
This is the last World Championships for Les Supremes captains, di Giandomenico and Bernardo. Bernardo is retiring after nine years with the team and di Giandomenico is retiring after eight years.
“I think we’ll try to stay in the skating world as much as we can and whatever our coaches need help with, di Giandomenico said about their future plans. “We’ll be there with them and we’ll support the team no matter what, in the future. We’re just really proud of our journey and the four World Championships that we won with them.”
The Haydenettes were in second after the short program. Their short program was mostly clean until a fall just before the ending pose. The Haydenettes’ free skate, “Somewhere Only We Know” holds a deep emotional meaning for the skaters, as it speaks to the trials the team has faced over the past year, including Flight 5342. The Skating Club of Boston, where the Haydenettes train, lost six members of its figure skating community when the plane they were traveling on from Wichita, Kansas crashed with black hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. in January 2025. In all, 28 members of the figure skating community lost their lives. Playing on their lyrical strengths, the Haydenettes delivered a beautiful skate with great musicality throughout the program. Six elements earned a level-four. They earned a free skate score of 149.98, which was third in the free skate. They still managed to claim the silver medal, which was their second silver medal and eighth overall ISU World medal.
“Today for the free skate, we really wanted to just kind of forget about yesterday and forget what was to
come and really just focus on enjoying every single second we had on the ice together and really just tell the audience
our story of our free program,” said Paige Felton, of the Haydenettes.
“The emotions in the Kiss & Cry, honestly, we were just together as a team. We knew that we skated our best today and so that’s all we can hope for. At the end of the day, the result is the result and we were super happy but most of all we were happy to be together,” added Taylor Olender, of the Haydenettes.
For Olender, this is her last season with the Haydenettes. She has been on the Haydenettes for five years.
“I’ve won three world medals with this team, and so what a way to end 18 years of synchronized skating for me,” Olender said about her final skate.
The Helsinki Rockettes, the 2025 World Champions, found themselves in fourth place after the short program after suffering two falls in their intersection in the short program. In their Spanish themed routine from the musical, “Bienvenido a la vida”, they showcased lots of speed and ice coverage. They earned level-four on seven of their elements. They earned a free skate score of 156.23, which was the best free skate of the event. They pulled up one spot to take the bronze medal with an overall score of 228.67. This is their tenth ISU World medal.
“We felt really good the whole day and we were emotional even before we were going on the ice,” said Evaliina Tikkinen of the Helsinki Rockettes. “Like in the warm-up and then we went on the ice with all those emotions, we just enjoyed every second on the ice. It was an amazing day.”
“We tried just to forget yesterday (the mistakes of the short program) and start a new competition today,” noted Wilma Lindström of the Helsinki Rockettes. When we went to the ice, we could have the feeling that we have nothing to lose. So we could just go there and enjoy and do our best.”
Like their Finnish teammates, Team Unique found themselves having to put their short program behind them as well as they had three falls, two in the intersection and one in the moving element, in the program. Their Edith Piaf medley free skate earned a free skate score of 152.12, which was second in the segment. They pulled up from seventh after the short program to finish fourth overall with a score of 218.28. Canada’s Team Nova found themselves in third place after the short program. They did have a fall in their twizzles element at the end of their free skate. They earned a free skate score of 141.55, which was fifth in the segment. They finished fifth overall with a score of 217.50. This is the third-consecutive fifth place finish for the team. Team USA’s the Skyliners had a strong short program and found themselves in fifth place heading into the free skate. Their free skate had two falls during the twizzles element. They had a free skate score of 135.51, which was sixth in the segment. They finished in sixth place with a score of 205.97. This is the second time they have finished sixth in their five trips to the World Championships.
A total of 22 teams competed at the World Championships. Also, before the free skate, the brand new format Synchro9 was demonstrated with three teams from Canada, Finland and the USA performing.
