2021 World figure skating championships : promise of a gold competition

If major of the figure skating season and events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the figure skating world championships welcome the best skaters of all times. Figure Skating fans should expect a very exciting and interresting competition.


Here we will witness on the field all the best team but particularly the russians pair that dominate the sport this season. They demonstrate an important evolution thru the year due to all the events and competition that successfully launch the russian federation. It gave the russian skaters the opportumity to keep up their level as well as their competition mood. Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovski the actual European Champions, the Olympics medalist  Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov as well as the World champions in 2017 and 2019, Sui and Han will come in as favourites in pairs but the new coming growing pair team Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Galliamov will look to land on the podium as well as they showed a very strong technical content this year.

Ice Dance : The door is open without Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron

Dance is mark this year by the non participation of four-time world champs, and silver Olympics medalists Papadakis/Cizeron. The duo deciding to skip the event, citing difficult training conditions due to the pandemic and an uncertain competition calendar in an announcement in January. "The series of cancellations provoked a climate of uncertainty and doubt that is difficult for all top-level athletes to manage,” Cizeron said in a statement via the French federation. This of course let the possibilities to their direct contestant, the russian ice dance team and current European champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov to reach for the gold. As well, as  U.S. teams Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and Madison Chock and Evan Bates. And, Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

The 2015 World and European Champion, as well named as the « Empress » of figure skating make a major comeback this year. Trained by the marvellous and admire skating coach Alexei Mishin, after few years of on and off performance, Elizaveta Tutkamysheva made a brilliant season in Russia where she demonstrate brilliant artistic performances as well as a strong triple Axel. Anna Shcherbakova who trains with Eteri Tutberidze and her team, has a quad Lutz and flip in her arsenal and became the first woman to win three consecutive Russian titles since Irina Slutskaya (1999 to 2001). Nicknamed the “quad queen” or “Russian rocket,” Alexandra Trusova is the first lady to have landed a quadruple Lutz and quadruple flip in international competition and also the first to perform multiple quads in one program. This year switched coaches at the end of the past season from Eteri Tutberidze and her team to Evgeni Plushenko’s school. She as well plan to perform triple Axel in her short and quads in her free program. Rika Kihira (JPN) will as well comes armed with quads and a triple Axel. The 18-year-old landed her first quad Salchow at this season’s Japanese Nationals to take her second consecutive title. Among them, others amazing ladies will perform mervellous program such as US champion Bradie Tennell, Japan’s Satoko Miyahara, and Kaori Sakamoto,  Loena Hendrickx of Belgium or  Alexia Paganini from switzerland.


Men : The golden child of figure skating reunited

For the mens events, it is gonna be a melting pot of all the best figure skaters of all times, perfoming both strong tecnhical and artistic content. In fact all of them gonna should be veru close points thinking considering their respectives season. Starting with Yuzuru Hanyu. The two times Olympic Champion made his comeback as many others, for the first time in a year on international stage. Hanyu, who put on an incredible performance at the Japan Championships in Nagano in December to win his fifth national crown, will be competing in full health against Chen for the first time since the Cup of Russia in 2017. His direct competitor Nathan Chen undefeated since placing fifth at the 2018 Olympics, headlines the U.S. roster as he goes for a world title three-peat. Close from them and this one could make a surprise, the Russian champion Mikhail Kolyada amaze the skating world this year by his performance on the free program on all the Russian’s competition. Indeed, he recently switched to train under Alexei Mishin which gave him the opportunity to get back on track to be ready to take the gold at the world and at the Olympics next year. Boyang Jin, from China, who recently switched tro train under Olympic medalist Brian Orser two-time World bronze medalist should not be counted out in the medal race. The 23-year-old can usually rely on his quads, and his qualities as a performer. US bronze medalist Jason Brown, French talented champion Kevin Aymoz and silver medalist Siao Him Fa,  Junhwan Cha from korea, Keegan Messing from Canada, and the two Italian Grassl and Frangipani are as well serious competitior to watch.

As precise « The Olympic Channel »  : typically, the world championships the year prior to the Winter Olympics serve as the qualifying event for national spots at the Games, meaning the placement of athletes at worlds determines said athletes’ countries number of available spots. The same will go for this worlds. The Nebelhorn Trophy Challenger Series event in September of 2021 will serve as a secondary qualifying event.
To qualify three skaters/teams in a discipline, countries with a skater/team that places in:
the top 2 and/or
has two athletes/teams with placement(s) that adds up to 13 or less will send three skaters/teams in said discipline to Beijing (for example, 6th place and 7th place).
To qualify two skaters/teams in a discipline, countries with a skater/team that places in:
the top 10 automatically qualifies two skaters or teams
two spots are also reserved for countries whose skaters add up to 28 or less in their placement(s) (for example, 13th place and 15th place).
A full explanation of the Olympic qualifying process can be found here. Thirty singles skaters in both men and ladies will make the Games, while 19 pairs teams and 23 ice dance teams will compete at Beijing 2022.