2022 Figure Skating World Championships
The 2022 World Figure Skating Championships, held in Montpellier, France, concluded last week. With Russian athletes, including the 3 A’s (Anna Shcherbakova, Alena Kostornaia, and Alexandra Trusova) and Kamila Valieva — previous favorites for the women’s singles — banned from the competition and men’s singles favorites Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen out of the competition due to injury, the competition was particularly interesting this year for both viewers and athletes alike.
In men’s singles, Japan started particularly strong, sweeping the podium in the short program. Olympic bronze medalist Shoma Uno led the field, putting up a total segment score of 109.63, outscoring his previous personal best, set last month during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, by nearly four points. Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama finished just behind, having stumbled during his triple Axel and placing second with a score of 105.69. Kazuki Tomono, having scored a total segment score of 101.12, also bested his previous personal best by nearly four points, placing third after the short program. Ilia Malinin of the United States, Daniel Grassl of Italy, and Vincent Zhou, also of the United States, trailed behind the podium with scores of 100.16, 97.62, and 95.84, respectively.
Both Uno and Kagiyama continued their dominance in the free skate. Although Uno stumbled after an underrotated quad flip, he performed the rest of his program excellently, putting up a total segment score of 202.85 — nearly 10 points over his previous personal best — and securing the gold medal in men’s singles with a personal best combined score of 312.48. Kagiyama’s free skate program began with some trouble, when his second jump, a quad toe-loop, was downgraded and received overwhelmingly negative grade of execution (GOE) scores as a result. However, The 2022 World Figure Skating Championships, held in Montpellier, France, concluded last week. With Russian athletes, including the 3 A’s (Anna Shcherbakova, Alena Kostornaia, and Alexandra Trusova) and Kamila Valieva — previous favorites for the women’s singles — banned from the competition and men’s singles favorites Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen out of the competition due to injury, the competition was particularly interesting this year for viewers and athletes alike.
In men’s singles, Japan started particularly strong, sweeping the podium in the short program. Olympic bronze medalist Shoma Uno led the field, putting up a total segment score of 109.63, outscoring his previous personal best, set last month during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, by nearly four points. Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama finished just behind, having stumbled during his triple Axel and placing second with a score of 105.69. Kazuki Tomono, having scored a total segment score of 101.12, also bested his previous personal best by nearly four points, placing third after the short program. Ilia Malinin of the United States, Daniel Grassl of Italy, and Vincent Zhou, also of the United States, trailed behind the podium, finishing with scores of 100.16, 97.62, and 95.84, respectively.
Both Uno and Kagiyama continued their dominance in the free skate. Although Uno stumbled after an underrotated quad flip, he performed the rest of his program excellently, putting up a total segment score of 202.85 — nearly 10 points over his previous personal best — and securing the gold medal in men’s singles with a personal best combined score of 312.48. Kagiyama’s free skate program began with some trouble, when his second jump, a quad toe-loop, was downgraded and received overwhelmingly negative grade of execution (GOE) scores as a result. However, Kagiyama rallied and completed the rest of his program reasonably well, scoring 191.91 for his free skate for a combined score of 297.60. Camden Pulkinen of the United States, who had placed 12th after the short program with a score of 89.50, put on a greatly improved performance in the free skate to place third in the segment with a new personal best score of 182.19 for a combined score of 271.69. Fellow American Vincent Zhou, Georgian Morisi Kvitelashvili, and Adam Siao Him Fa of France trailed behind the podium in free skate with scores of 181.54, 179.42, and 175.15, respectively.
With two rounds of dominance, Uno and Kagiyama’s gold and silver men’s singles medals were never in contention. Uno’s victory makes him the first man other than Hanyu and Chen to win the men’s singles World Championships since 2017. With Kagiyama taking silver in men’s singles, Japanese athletes have won silver in the event in each of the last eight World Championships. The competition for the bronze medal, however, was much less predictable. Although Tomono was third after the short program, several mistakes during his free skate resulted in him finishing eight in the segment and off the overall podium. Both Malinin and Grassl finished similarly, having placed 11th and seventh in the segment, respectively, resulting in them finishing ninth and seventh overall, respectively. Despite Pulkinen finishing third in the free skate, his 12th place short program score was not enough to help him make the men’s singles podium, and he placed fifth overall. With a combined score of 277.38, it was Vincent Zhou who performed consistently enough across both segments to take the men’s singles bronze.
In women’s singles, it was Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto who led the field after the short program, scoring a new personal best of 80.32 points. Belgian Loena Hendrickx trailed closely behind, placing second with a total segment score of 75.00. American Mariah Bell took third in the short program, underrotating her first jump but having no other significant issues in her program and thus scoring a personal best of 72.55 points for the segment. Young You of Korea, Alysa Liu of the U.S., and Nicole Schott of Germany finished just off the podium with scores of 72.08, 71.91, and 67.77, respectively.
Sakamoto’s kept up her momentum in the next segment, blowing the rest of the field out of the water with a fantastically executed program that earned her a personal best free skate score of 155.77 and a corresponding personal best combined score of 236.09. Although Hendrickx underrotated two of her jumps — a triple-Lutz triple-toe loop combination and a triple-Lutz double-toe loop combination — she skated well through the rest of her program to score 142.70 for the segment, placing second, and scoring 217.70 overall. American Alysa Liu took third with a total segment score of 139.28, having similarly had two instances of underrotation, and put up an overall combined score of 211.19. Fellow American Mariah Bell, as well as Georgian Anastasia Gubanova and Young You and Korea followed closely behind, scoring 136.11, 134.02, and 132.83 for the free skate segment, respectively.
Like men’s singles, there was little contention over the gold and silver medals for women’s singles. Having won both the short program and the free skate, Sakamoto finished in first place, over 15 points ahead of Hendrickx. Hendrickx held her ground against the rest of the field, finishing second in both segments of the event to secure the silver medal. Although she was sitting in fifth after the short program, Liu’s third-place performance in the free skate was enough for her to surpass Bell, with Liu taking the bronze medal for the event and Bell finishing in fourth place overall.
The United States performed well in the pairs short program, taking both first and second place. Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier edged out teammates Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, with the former scoring a personal best of 76.88 points to edge out the latter’s segment score of 75.85. Japanese pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara placed third, scoring 71.58 after a fall on their triple Lutz throw. Karina Safina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, Vanessa James and Eric Radford of Canada, and Minerva Fabienne Hase Nolan Seegert of Germany finished just off the podium, having scored 67.36, 66.54, and 66.29 points, respectively.
Knierim and Frazier continued their momentum in the free skate, putting up a total segment score of 144.21, beating their previous personal best by nearly six points, and an overall new personal best score of 221.09. James and Radford rallied to a strong third-place showing, scoring 130.78 for a combined personal best score of 197.32. Miura and Kihara held firmly onto third place, scoring 127.97 points for the segment for a combined overall score of 199.55 overall. Safina and Luka Berulava, Hase and Seegert, and Canadians Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud followed the podium, having scored 124.38, 123.32, and 115.74 for the free skate segment, respectively.
Knierim and Frazier took gold in the event in stride, finishing first in the short program and first again, comfortably, in the free skate. Fellow Americans Cain-Gribble and LeDuc, however, were not quite as fortunate. Although they were in second place after the free skate, a series of falls culminating in Cain-Gribble hitting her head on the ice and suffering a concussion forced the pair to withdraw from the competition. Silver went to Miura and Kihara, whose consistency allowed them to reach the podium in both the short program and the free skate. Despite being fifth after the short program, James and Radford’s second-place free skate program earned them the bronze medal in the event overall.
Having taken gold in ice dance at the Beijing Olympics back in February, French pair Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron showcased their prowess in the rhythm dance, scoring a historic 92.73 with no GOE scores less than three. This score bested their previous personal best score — the previous rhythm dance world record — by nearly two points. American pair and Olympic bronze medalists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue also performed exceptionally well, but could not match the French, taking second place with a personal best segment score of 89.72. Teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished third in the rhythm dance, scoring 87.51. Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, and Spaniards Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz followed just behind the podium, with scores of 84.22, 80.79, and 79.40, respectively.
The podium remained constant in the free dance. Papadakis and Cizeron continued their dominance, finishing in first place, scoring 137.09, beating their previous personal best and setting a new world record for the free dance segment. Their combined score of 229.82 was also a new personal best for the athletes, as well as a new world record. Hubbell and Donohue held onto second place, putting up a personal best score of 132.67 for the segment for a combined score of 222.39. Chock and Bates did not relent either, skating strong and scoring 129.32 for their free dance, earning a personal best combined score of 216.83. Guignard and Fabbri, Gilles and Poirier, and British pair Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson trailed behind, having scored 125.70, 121.91, and 119.28 for the segment, respectively.
With the consistency in placings across both segments of the event, especially among the teams on the podium, the overall placings came as no surprise. Papadakis and Cizeron took home their fifth World Championship gold medal, Hubbell and Donohue won their third World Championship silver, and Chock and Bates their second World Championship bronze.