World Figure Skating Championships: Meet the contenders and Americans competing in Boston

Boston Globe

24-03-2025

Men
Short program:
Thursday, 11:05 a.m.-4:45 p.m. (TV: USA, 3 p.m.)
Free skate:
Saturday, 6-10 p.m. (TV: NBC, 8 p.m.)
Medal ceremony:
Saturday, 10 p.m.
Ilia Malinin, US, age 20
The '
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Jason Brown, US, age 30
Advertisement
Brown, an Illinois native, is a nine-time Grand Prix medalist, two-time Four Continents medalist, and the 2015 US national champion. At 19, Brown became one of the youngest male figure skating Olympic medalists, winning bronze in the team event in 2014. Brown withdrew from the 2025 US championships because of issues with adjusting to an equipment change but is expected to skate in Boston. While figure skating has become increasingly technical, Brown is known for exceptional artistry, often prioritizing program components, musicality, and emotion over elements such as quadruple jumps.
Yuma Kagiyama, Japan, age 21
Kagiyama will look to earn his first global gold. Kagiyama has several silver medals, including the 2022 Olympics and three world silvers. He is coached by his father, Masakazu, who competed at the 1992 and 1994 Olympics.
Adam Siao Him Fa, France, age 24
Along with being a two-time European champion and earning the 2024 world bronze medal, Siao Him Fa was a vocal proponent of taking the backflip off the International Skating Union's banned elements list. He added a backflip to cap his European and world championship free skates, costing him 2-point deductions each time. The 2024-25 season marks the first in nearly 50 years that a backflip is allowed in competition. Siao Him Fa celebrated by adding a backflip to each of his programs.
Advertisement
Lukas Britschgi, Switzerland, age 27
An Olympian in 2022, Britschgi was crowned European champion in January after winning his fifth Swiss title in December. Britschgi landed two quads and two triple Axels to become the first Swiss male European champion since 1947, despite struggling with a knee injury.
Mikhail
The five-time Kazakh national champion has been having an ascendant season, earning his first major success at the senior level with gold at the Four Continents in February. In November, he became the first skater to land a triple Axel-quadruple toe loop combination, in November and and in December the first to hit a triple Axel-Euler-quadruple Salchow sequence.
Andrew Torgashev, US, age 23
Torgashev rounds out the American contingent. The Florida native earned silver at the US championships in January and is aiming for a top-10 finish at Worlds. Torgashev is the son of retired skaters Ilona Melnichenko (ice dance) and Artem Torgashev (pairs), who competed for the Soviet Union.
Women
Short program:
Wednesday, 12-4:45 p.m. (TV: USA, 3 p.m.)
Free skate:
Friday, 6-10 p.m. (TV: NBC, 8 p.m.)
Medal ceremony:
Friday, 10 p.m.
Amber Glenn, US, age 25
Glenn is looking to complete an unbeaten season with a world title after defending her national title in January. She is the fourth American woman to land a clean triple Axel in international competition. A Texas native who trains in Colorado, she is a strong contender for the Olympics.
Isabeau Levito, US, age 18
Levito is the 2024 world silver medalist and 2023 US champion. She withdrew from the 2025 US championships because of a foot injury but was able to return to competition in February at the Road to 26 Trophy in Milan, where she finished second. The Philadelphia native trains in southern New Jersey.
Related
:
Advertisement
Alysa Liu, US, age 19
Liu is the 2022 world bronze medalist, two-time US champion, and competed in the 2022 Olympics. At 13, she became the youngest US women's national champion, and at 14 the youngest skater to win two senior national titles, becoming the first woman to win consecutive US titles since Ashley Wagner in 2012 and '13. Liu was the first American junior women's skater to successfully complete a triple Axel in international competition, the first American woman to complete both a quad and triple Axel in the same program, and the first woman to land a triple Axel in combination with a triple toe loop in the short program. She was runner-up to Glenn at the US championships. The California native trains in the Bay Area.
Kaori Sakamoto, Japan, age 24
Sakamoto is the three-time defending world champion. She earned bronze at the 2022 Olympics and is looking to become the first woman to win four consecutive singles titles since Carol Heiss (1956-60). Sakamoto is the favorite as the most dominant woman of her era, but she is coming off a hugely disappointing Asian Winter Games, where she unraveled in the free skate to relinquish gold to South Korea's Kim Chae-yeon.
Niina Petrokina, Estonia, age 20
Petrokina is the 2025 European champion and three-time Estonian champion. She became the first Estonian skater to win a gold medal at the European championships.
Kim Chae-yeon, South Korea, age 18
Last year's world bronze medalist, Kim is on a hot streak with gold medals at the Korean championships, the Four Continents, and the Asian Winter Games. She upset Sakamoto in the latter, finishing second in the short program before dominating the free skate.
Advertisement
Yoshida Hana, Japan, age 19
In December, Hana earned a bronze medal at the Grand Prix Final.
Pairs
Short program:
Wednesday, 6:45-10:20 p.m. (TV: USA, 8 p.m.)
Free skate:
Thursday, 6:15-10 p.m. (TV: USA, 8 p.m.)
Medal ceremony:
Thursday, 10 p.m.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Canada
The reigning world champions will look to defend their title after claiming their third straight Canadian crown. Stellato-Dudek, 41, is the oldest woman to win a world figure skating title in any discipline, and has been skating with Deschamps, 32, since 2019.
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan
The 2023 world champions had to settle for a pair of silver medals on either side of their world title and are perhaps the biggest threats to dethrone the Canadian favorites. Miura, 23, and Kihara, 32, are having a strong season, having just won a Four Continents title in February.
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, US
Efimova, 25, and Mitrofanov, 27, won their first national title together in January and are seeking their first global medal. The pair train at Norwood's Skating Club of Boston and earned silver at last year's US championships.
Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, US
Kam, 20, and O'Shea, 34, teamed up in 2022. They won bronze at the US championships in January and were US champions last year. The pair have two Grand Prix Series medals.
Ice dance
Rhythm dance:
Friday, 11:55 a.m.-5 p.m. (TV: USA, 3 p.m.)
Free dance:
Saturday, 1:30-4:50 p.m. (TV: USA, 3 p.m.)
Medal ceremony:
Saturday, 5 p.m.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, US
Defending world champions, and husband and wife duo, Chock, 32, and Bates, 36, have been teamed up since 2011, and are seeking their third consecutive gold medal. Chock and Bates earned a team gold at the 2022 Olympics and won their sixth US title in January. Chock often designs the pair's costumes, which won Best Costume at the ISU Skating Awards in 2020 and 2023. Their coaches, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, were the 2006 and 2007 world silver medalists, representing Canada.
Advertisement
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, Canada
Silver medalists in 2024 after bronzes in 2021 and 2023, Gilles (born in the US) and Poirier, both 33, come to Boston chasing a long-awaited gold after winning a fourth Canadian title in January.
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, Italy
Guignard, 35, was born in France but has competed for Italy with partner Fabbri, 37, since 2010. The pair have picked up medals at the last two world championships — bronze in 2024 and silver in 2023 — and are looking for a gold to complete their set. The two won their third consecutive European championship and seventh straight Italian title ahead of Worlds.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, US
Carreira (born in Canada) and Ponomarenko, both 24, have been skating together since 2014 and have won consecutive US silver medals (2024 and 2025). The pair earned bronze at Nationals in 2023, and in 2018 were the US junior champions. They also have won four Grand Prix Series medals. Ponomarenko is the son of 1992 Olympic ice dance champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, who competed for the Soviet Union before winning Olympic gold with the Unified Team.
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, US
Green, 21, and Parsons, 29, teamed up in 2019 and earned bronze at Nationals in January. The pair were the Four Continents champions in 2022, US silver medalists in 2023, and have two Grand Prix Series medals.
Rumsha Siddiqui can be reached at