Malinin, Sakamoto shine as World Figure Skating Championships close in Prague
World Championship in Prague Marks the End of an Olympic Season
The World Figure Skating Championships in Prague have concluded, bringing the entire Olympic season to a close. Among recent Olympic gold medalists, only ice dancers Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron competed at Worlds. In the absence of Mikhail Shaidorov and Alysa Liu, the favorites for Milan 2026 dominated the men's and women's singles in Prague: American Ilia Malinin claimed his third world title, while Japan's Kaori Sakamoto secured her fourth—and, sadly, final—gold.
The men's event in Prague became a kind of collective redemption. Just a month after the disastrous free skate at the Olympics, where every top contender faltered, paving the way for Shaidorov's sensational victory, the 2026 Worlds restored the thrill of elite figure skating. With the exception of Adam Siao Him Fa, every skater in the final warm-up group delivered one stellar performance after another.
Yuma Kagiyama set the tone for this fireworks display. Two days earlier, the Japanese skater had suffered a cruel stroke of luck: as he entered a triple Axel, his takeoff foot caught a blade mark left by a previous group, throwing him completely off balance and sending him crashing to the ice. Fortunately, he escaped uninjured.
But on Saturday, Kagiyama was razor-focused—and delivered the best skate of his career. He shattered his personal best, set at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, by nearly four points, becoming only the fourth men's singles skater in history to surpass 210 in the free skate, joining Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen, and Malinin.
Malinin, too, broke his own record in Prague—though only in the short program. After that, expectations soared for a knockout victory from the "Quad King" in the free skate. Instead, he chose caution.
Even with a scaled-back routine, Malinin's program remained the most technically demanding of the championship, and his flawless execution earned him maximum bonuses.
It seemed the American wavered until the very last moment, making his final decision mid-performance—or rather, mid-air—when he opted to downgrade his signature quadruple Axel from 4.5 rotations to 3.5. Whether he was rattled by Kagiyama's brilliant skate or his own shaky opening flip, I can't say. But he played it safe—and it paid off. Despite the adjustments, his program stayed the most difficult of the competition, and his clean execution secured the highest possible scores.
