By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
Photos by Robin Ritoss and Giada Arioldi
A post-Olympics World Championships tends to be unpredictable as many of the Olympic medalists choose not to participate in the event. Given that, the 2026 World Championships will see new champions in all but one discipline as the reigning World Champions in the women’s, pairs’ and ice dance events have chosen to compete. The only discipline where there could be a repeat champion is the men’s event.
Men
Though Olympic Champion Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakstan will not be competing at the 2026 World Championships this week in Prague, Czech Republic, the reigning World Champion Ilia Malinin, who also won the event in 2024, will look to rebound from his performance at the Olympics in Milan and take his third-straight World title.
Looking to be on the podium and possibly challenge Malinin for the title is the 2026 Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan. Last year, Kagiyama finished behind both Malinin and Shaidorov and claimed the bronze medal, which was his fourth world medal. Kagiyama has yet to win a World title. 2026 Olympic bronze medalist Shun Sato, also of Japan, is looking for his first World medal. In his first World Championships last year, Sato finished sixth. Also representing Japan at the World Championships is Kao Miura. Miura was 13th at the Olympics and he finished eighth at his last World Championships, which was in 2024.
Canada’s Stephen Gogolev will make his Worlds debut after finishing in a promising fifth place at his first Olympics. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who finished in seventh at the Olympics, finished fourth at the World Championships last season, after taking home the bronze the previous season. When Siao Him Fa won the bronze that year, he jumped from 19th place after the short program to win his first World medal. Siao Him Fa will be joined by Kevin Aymoz, who finished in fifth at the 2025 World Championships. Aymoz was 11th in Milan.
Italy’s Daniel Grassl, who won a bronze in the team event, finished ninth in the men’s event in Milan. His teammate Matteo Rizzo, who also won bronze in the team event, finished 15th. Rizzo has withdrawn from Worlds and has been replaced by Gabriele Frangipani, who finished 16th at the 2024 World Championships.
Korea’s Junhwan Cha, who missed the podium by less than a point at the Olympics, has withdrawn from Worlds and has been replaced by Younghyun Cha. Team USA also had a change in its roster. Jason Brown will not compete in Prague. He will be replaced by Jacob Sanchez, who is making his Worlds debut. Sanchez finished fourth last month at the Junior World Championships. Also representing Team USA is 2026 U.S. silver medalist Andrew Torgashev. Torgashev finished 23rd last year at Worlds. He finished 12th at his first Olympics last month.
Women
With Olympic Champion Alysa Liu continuing her post-Olympics media tour and taking advantage of everything that has come from winning the U.S.’s first Olympic title in women’s figure skating in 24 years, the storyline of the women’s discipline will be the final event of Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto‘s outstanding career. The three-time World champion announced that she will retire upon the conclusion of this season. She looks to close out her career with her fourth World title. She also is a four-time Olympic medalist (2026 silver medalist, 2022 bronze medalist and two-time Olympic silver medalist in the team event).
While Sakamoto makes her final trip to the World Championships, her teammate, Ami Nakai, will compete at her first senior World Championships. Nakai, who moved up from the junior ranks this season, won the bronze medal at the Olympics in Milan. She also won the silver medal at the Four Continents Championships and the silver medal at the Grand Prix Final.
Mone Chiba just missed the podium at the Olympics. She is the current World bronze medalist and is looking for her second World medal. Chiba was third at the Four Continents Championships and fifth at the Grand Prix Final.
Though Liu is not competing, Team USA is still represented by the other two members of the “Blades Angels”, the name given to the three U.S. women competing in Milan. After a disappointing short program in Milan, Amber Glenn had the third best free skate to finish fifth overall. It was the same placement that the Olympic gold medalist in the team event earned at last year’s World championships. The 2024 World silver medalist Isabeau Levito just missed the World podium last year. She finished ahead of Glenn in fourth place. She finished 12th at the Olympics in Milan. The third member of the U.S. team is Sarah Everhardt, who is replacing Liu. She is making her Worlds debut. She won bronze last season at Four Continents and the U.S. Championships.
Two-time European Niina Petrokina is looking for her first World medal. She finished eighth last year at Worlds, her best finish at the World Championships. Korea’s Haein Lee, who finished eighth at the Olympics, will make her sixth appearance at the World Championships. She won the silver medal in 2023, but hasn’t been on the world podium since. Last year, she finished ninth. Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova finished behind Lee at the Olympics. At last year’s World Championships, Gubanova failed to make the free skate and finished in a disappointing 28th place.
Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann, who won bronze at the European Championships, will look to improve on her 13th place finish at last year’s World Championships. She finished 15th at the Olympics, but won a bronze medal with Team Italy in the team event.
Pairs
Olympic champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara have chosen not to go to Worlds. They plan to announce what their future plans are in the coming weeks. So there will be a new pairs World champion. Also not competing is the 2025 World bronze medalists Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy and the 2024 World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps.
So it will be a battle between Olympic silver medalists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, and Olympic bronze medalists Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany for the gold medal. Hase and Volodin won the silver medal at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, while Metelkina and Berulava were fourth.
A team who could very well be on the podium in Prague is Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko, who just missed the podium at the Olympics in Milan. They were fifth at the Grand Prix Final. They finished eighth at Worlds last year after finishing fourth at the previous year’s Worlds.
Team USA’s Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe are replacing their Olympic teammates, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, who withdrew from the event due to injury. Chan and Howe finished 7th in Milan. Their training mates, two-time U.S. Champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were not able to compete in Milan because of citizenship. They finished sixth at last year’s World Championships in Boston, which is their training city. The U.S. earned three pairs spots at the World Championships last season. So the U.S’s third team is 2026 U.S. bronze medalists Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, who were also not able to go to the Olympics because of citizenship. This is their Worlds debut.
Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who surprised fans with their third place short program in Milan, will look to improve on their 11th place finish at the 2025 World Championships. They finished in eighth overall at the Olympics.
China’s Jiaxuan Zhang and Yihang Huang, who finished fourth at the Four Continents Championships, will make their Worlds debut in Prague.
Dance
Three-time World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates will not be defending their title in Prague. Two-time World medalists Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy will also not be competing in Prague. However, Olympic champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France will make their first trip together to the World Championships and are the favorites to take the title.
Learn more about the dance event at Ice-Dance.com.
