Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title, but he wanted more

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Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title, but he wanted more

BOSTON — Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title Saturday night, this one by a larger margin than the first.

But, despite his utter dominance of men’s singles skating, Malinin felt upset that he had left something undone.

That’s why he whacked the ice in frustration after finishing a free skate that left him happy because it brought another gold medal but disappointed because he fell short of his goal.

This season, Malinin wanted to further enhance his reputation as the Quadg0d by doing an unprecedented free skate in which all seven jumping passes began with a successful quad, and they were to include all six different types of the jump.

The skating gods apparently still think that is hubris.

He now has tried it unsuccessfully three times.

“It’s a pretty decent challenge that I’ve given myself,” he said.

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Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

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Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

BOSTON — During her two-year retirement from figure skating, Alysa Liu joined four friends in May 2023 on a 40-mile trek to Mount Everest base camp, some 17,500 feet above sea level.

That was nothing compared to the trip Liu made Friday, climbing to the top of the world in her sport, a result that is one of the biggest surprise endings in figure skating’s long history. It seemed beyond the realm of comprehension even to Liu.

She did it by being unabashedly, completely herself, a 19-year-old who mixes adult maturity with teenage goofiness, as she did when asked by rinkside host Ashley Wagner how it felt to be world champion.

“Just, what the hell?” she told the sellout crowd at TD Garden, which had roared and stomped and clapped so loudly near the end of the program it drowned out the million-decibel Donna Summer music.

What the hell, indeed?

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates shuck weight of past ice dance glories to seek more

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates shuck weight of past ice dance glories to seek more

BOSTON — When the triumphs pile up, when you have been atop the field in your sport for more than two seasons, when you have been a medalist in national and world championships from your early 20s to your 30s, it is easy to become happy with what you have already accomplished in 14 seasons as competitors.

For those who become timeless champions, though, the Sisyphean but still fulfilling quest for perfection always endures.

So it is for U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who came into the 2025 World Championships with an Olympic gold medal, six national titles and five world medals, the last two of them gold.

“Yes, we’ve accumulated some titles along the way, but it still feels like we’re still striving for excellence and looking for ways to improve ourselves,” Chock said in a recent interview.

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At figure skating worlds, a U.S.-Canada ice dance story adds a chapter

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At figure skating worlds, a U.S.-Canada ice dance story adds a chapter

The two couples have both been in the same ice dance universe for 14 seasons, with each moving at a different trajectory and speed toward the shiny medals that once seemed distant.

One team, Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, got there faster and collected more medals of all colors and more of the most glittering.

Yet as they and rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada home in on the biggest and brightest medal of all, an Olympic gold, the gap between the two couples has narrowed to the point that who stands on the top step of the podium at the 2026 Winter Games is almost impossible to predict.

Even the results of the 2025 World Championships that began Wednesday in Boston likely will not be enough to make one couple the decisive favorite next year in Milan, Italy.

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Liu finds the joy — and the lead — at World Figure Skating Championships

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Liu finds the joy — and the lead — at World Figure Skating Championships

BOSTON – In her first figure skating career, the one she ended with a retirement three years ago at age 16, Alysa Liu won national titles, made history as the youngest this and the youngest that, did landmark jumps for a U.S. woman, competed in the Olympics and won a world championships bronze medal.

The way Liu describes all that now, it was a pretty joyless experience.

She didn’t like to practice. That meant she rarely went into a competition as prepared as she needed to be. That — and injuries — made her performances erratic.

“It was a job,” she said.

Her unexpected return this season, on her own terms, has been so enjoyable that Liu literally turned a cartwheel on the entry walkway before taking the ice for Wednesday afternoon’s short program at the 2025 World Championships.

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