By Hiro Yoshida For the past decade, Montreal has become the capital of ice dance and this week the city plays host to the World Championships. Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA) are back to defend the title they won last year in Saitama, Japan and close out their season on a high. The victory at 2023 Worlds had been a long time in the making. Chock and Bates teamed up 2011 and they finally won gold at their tenth appearance at Worlds. “The feelings we had were just gratitude and joy for all the many years that we’ve worked to accomplish this goal that made it that much sweeter when we did fin ..read more

Four years on from being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Montreal, Canada finally gets its opportunity to host the cream of the world’s figure skating talent. When is it on? The World Championships begin Wednesday, 20 March with the pairs short programme and conclude Sunday, 24 March with the exhibition gala. Who is skating? Two-time defending champion Shoma Uno (JPN) is back to try to retain the men’s title, but he will have his work cut out. Ilia Malinin (USA) took top honours at the Grand Prix Final last December, while Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) has been making steady progress back to pea ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus surprised the skating world last May when their names appeared on the entry list for the 2023 Irish National Figure Skating Championships. Their whirlwind first season culminates this week with the ice dancers representing Ireland at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada. Soucisse and Firus had previously won silver at the Four Continents Championships back in 2018 and represented Canada at Worlds later that same year. However, the past few seasons had seen their results stagnate domestically in a highly competitive Canadian ice dance fie ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida In Europe, Adam Siao Him Fa stands head and shoulders above his competitors. This month he gets to test his mettle against the rest of the world in Montreal, Canada. The 2022-2023 season was a breakthrough for Siao Him Fa mining gold at the Grand Prix de France and European Championships. This season got off to a perfect start with him picking up titles at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, the Shanghai Trophy in China and the Trophée Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur back home in France. He was assigned back-to-back Grand Prix events and was widely predicted to find it toug ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck have had a rollercoaster of a first year competing together for Spain, but they are now on track and ready for the climax of the season at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada. In the spring of 2022, Smart and Dieck both found themselves at a loose end. Smart’s former partner Adrián Díaz had announced his retirement from skating, while Dieck had parted ways with Katharina Müller and was looking to compete with someone else. “Olivia was the first woman I texted when I was looking for a partner because I knew her ex-partner Adrian had just retire ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida In just three seasons, Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez have crammed a wealth of experience into their career together. As they embark on their first senior World Championships, the future is looking bright for the promising British ice dancers. Bekker and Hernandez started off this season at the Nepela Memorial in Bratislava, Slovakia where they finished eighth. They picked up a silver medal at the Swiss Ice Skating Open in Lausanne, Switzerland at the end of October 2023. In early December, they came second at British Nationals to secure their place at the 2024 European Figur ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida It has been five years since Javier Fernández retired from competitive skating after a pioneering and illustrious career. While he is no longer winning titles and medals for his native Spain, the seven-time European champion is still very much involved in the sport. I caught up with Fernández at the European Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania where he was part of the team coaching French skater Luc Economides, alongside former rival and 2011 European champion Florent Amodio. This was his first time back at Europeans since his famous final victory in Minsk, Belarus back in 2019 ..read more

The World Junior Championships are back in Taipei City for the first time since 2017. When is it on? The World Junior Championships begin Wednesday, 28 February with the pairs short programme and conclude Sunday, 3 March with the exhibition gala. Who is skating? Rio Nakata (JPN) is the Junior Grand Prix Final from last December, although he only finished fifth in January at the Winter Youth Olympics. Adam Hagara (SVK) has had a great season so far by taking bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final and silver at the Winter Youth Olympics. Minkyu Seo (KOR) is the skater with the highest season best ..read more

By Hiro Yoshida While Aleksandr Selevko and Mihhail Selevko were born just 18 months apart and have skated together almost their whole lives, the Estonian brothers have each forged their own separate paths throughout their careers. En route to this season’s European Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, the siblings competed together at Finlandia Trophy, Budapest Trophy and NHK Trophy with Aleksandr finishing ahead in Finland and Japan and Mihhail in front in Hungary. They would also have faced each other at Golden Spin in Zagreb, Croatia were it not for Mihhail’s skates getting lost in transit ..read more

The Four Continents Championships returns to China for only the second time in the history of the event with Shanghai playing host. When is it on? The Four Continents Championships begin Thursday, 1 February with the women’s short programme and conclude Sunday, 4 February with the exhibition gala. Who is skating? Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) leads a strong Japanese trio in the men’s event with teammates Shun Sato (JPN) and Sota Yamamto (JPN) likely to be in the hunt for medals. Junhwan Cha (KOR) nabbed silver at the 2023 World Championships, but has not been in good form so far this season. The home fa ..read more