Worlds marks the last competition of the 2025-2026 season. Skaters have some time to go on tour, rest up and learn new routines before the next season starts in July.
Ilia Malinin celebrates after winning his third Figure Skating World Championships in Prague on Saturday. American figure skater Ilia Malinin won his third consecutive world title this weekend, just weeks after missing the podium at the Winter Olympics.
at the World Championships in Prague. He delivered two clean, quad-heavy programs to win gold by over 20 points, capping off the season on a note as high as his infamous jumps."I felt relieved that the season's finally done after a long up and down for this whole season," Malinin told, calling worlds a"change in mindset" from the Olympics."All I wanted to do was skate for myself, enjoy every moment on the ice and just have fun out there, and that's exactly what I did." Malinin skated the same routines that he brought to Italian ice — in the individual and the team event, in which heAnd he held onto that lead with a dazzling free skate on Saturday, even as he played it safe by his own standards." sideways spin, and landed five quadruple jumps. It's an eye-popping number, but not his upper limit: He made history at a competition in December by landing all seven jumps as quads. He fell short of that all-time high score but still won handily, by 22.73 points, becoming the first U.S. skater to three-peat at worlds since Nathan Chen.Men's world medalists Yuma Kagiyama, Ilia Malinin and Shun Sato celebrate on the podium in Prague, Czech Republic on Saturday."This was a competition where I wanted to just relieve all the pressure from the Olympics, to just come here with a fresh new mindset and just enjoy everything that I love about this sport," Malinin toldMalinin didn't attempt a quadruple axel — the jump that only he can do — in competition in Prague, as was the case in Milan. But he didlater that day). The 21-year-old from Virginia, who is also the four-time reigning U.S. champion, reflected on the highs and lows of his season "Part of it was just knowing that it's part of the deal," Malinin said."It's part of what we signed up to do as figure skaters and athletes … There's always going to be disappointing times and things that don't go your way, but we always have to learn to get up and use that as motivation or information to understand what we can do better in the future, and that's exactly what I did."Amber Glenn was emotional after a series of mistakes in her free skate in Prague, where she ultimately placed sixth in women's singles.Amber Glenn, the reigning three-time U.S. champion who is beloved for her outspoken LGTBQ and mental health advocacy, had hoped to recover from her Olympic disappointment.that put her in 12th place. She followed it up with a sensational free skate that catapulted her into a fifth-place finish.— including the jump that gave her trouble at the Olympics — and headed into the free skate in third place. On Friday, she started strong with a triple axel but under-rotated several jumps as a pained crowd cheered her to the end of the song, at which point she knelt down on the ice, covering her face. "I'm okay! If anything I'm mentally, emotionally, physically exhausted after a season of extreme highs and lows," wrote the 26-year-old."I did what I set out to do 6 years ago. Land a Triple axel and go to the Olympics and nothing will take that away from me."Japan's Kaori Sakamoto reacts after her triumphant farewell free skate on Friday. She leaves Prague with her fourth and final world title. The women's gold medal went to beloved Japanese skater Kaori Sakamoto, who now retires as the four-time reigning world champion. She earned ain the final skate of her competitive career, to an Édith Piaf medley including"Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" —"I regret nothing."Sakamoto was a favorite for gold, having won three straight world titles, until American Alysa Liu broke her streak last year and then won gold to her silver at the Olympics. Sakamoto has spoken about being disappointed with her results in Milan.after her win in Prague."There were times when things didn't go the way that I wanted, but at the end, really at the end of this season, everything came together. I'm very happy to be able to put this closure on my career." Sakamoto's fellow Japanese skater Mone Chiba finished second, and Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium finished third. Just off the podium in fourth place was Isabeau Levito of the U.S. — a marked improvement from her 12th-place spot in Milan.In ice dance, American duo Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik won bronze in their world championship debut, capping off a breakthrough season that saw them finish fifth at the Olympics., this is the 11th straight World Championships where at least one U.S. ice dance duo has won a medal. The most recent three went to Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who withdrew from worlds after taking silver at the Olympics.Alysa Liu, pictured presenting Taylor Swift with an award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday, started her off-season early after her Olympic victory. The World Championship marks the end of competition for the 2025-2026 figure skating season and this"quad," as the skating community refers to the four-year cycle culminating in a Winter Olympics. This is the window, especially in an Olympic year, when skaters traditionally take at least some time off to rest and recover., will visit cities throughout the U.S. from mid-April through the end of May. Malinin, Liu, Glenn, Leviteau, Chock and Bates are already on the roster. "I'm definitely going to celebrate this moment by doing a bunch of shows and starting so many new projects off the ice and on the ice," Malinin said this weekend. Kaori Sakamoto takes a selfie with fellow figure skaters at the Olympics exhibition gala in Milan last month.across the country from July through October, with its finals in November serving as one of the main pipelines to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Those will be held in Salt Lake City in January 2027. There are also six International Skating Union Grand Prix events every season, each hosted by a different country, including the U.S. This Grand Prix season will kick off with"" in Everett, Wash., in late October, and culminate in a final that is typically held in December ., which are headed to Lausanne, Switzerland, in late January. There's also the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, featuring top skaters from America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. World Championships in Tampere, Finland, will cap it all off in March 2027.Rachel Treisman is a writer and editor for the Morning Edition live blog, which she helped launch in early 2021.San Diego MTS granted $60.4 million by state rail capital programFollow the latest news from Italy, check Olympics event schedules, compare country medal standings and learn more about Team USA's hometown heroes as they go for the gold. KPBS keeps you informed with local stories you need to know about — with no paywall. 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