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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Ilia Malinin looks invincible to his top rival at figure skating worlds

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Ilia Malinin looks invincible to his top rival at figure skating worlds

BOSTON - Yuma Kagiyama was smiling when he said it, as if he were trying to lighten the meaning of his words and the implication they carried about the weight of the challenge for any figure skater trying to compete with Ilia Malinin.

After Thursday’s short program at the World Championships, when he finished a close second to reigning world champion Malinin, Kagiyama was asked what impresses him most about the man known as Quadg0d.

“He does all those difficult jumps, and he makes them look effortless,” Japan’s Kagiyama said through a translator. “Maybe he is putting (out) effort, but to us, it looks effortless and really easy.

“And it’s not just his jumps. I feel like his skating and his artistry, his expression is getting better year by year, so I’m starting to think he’s invincible.”

Invincible.

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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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Jason Brown tries to reboot his Boston story at World Figure Skating Championships

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Jason Brown tries to reboot his Boston story at World Figure Skating Championships

Jason Brown and his coach, Tracy Wilson, came up with a four-year plan for his competitive skating future a few months after the 2022 Winter Olympics, where Brown had a strong sixth-place finish with personal best scores for the short program and total.

They designed a rather unconventional approach to keep Brown mentally fresh and physically healthy for a run at the 2026 Olympics, where he could become, at age 31, the sixth-oldest Olympic men’s singles competitor in the last 90 years.

The idea was that Brown would do a minimal number of competitions in the 2023 and 2024 seasons and spend relatively little time training in Toronto, staying fit by doing lots of show skating. Then he would do a full competitive schedule this season (fall of 2024 through spring 2025), testing how that worked before following a similar schedule in the upcoming Olympic season.

On the surface, it all went well the first two seasons, with Brown finishing second at both the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Championships and fifth at both the 2023 and 2024 World Championships.

But as Brown looked forward to the 2025 World Championships, at the Boston arena where he had not skated since a career-defining moment at nationals in 2014, the metaphorical wheels – his skates - came off after having wobbled the previous two seasons.

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