World Figure Skating World Cup: top 5 events of the main world tournament

The World Figure Skating Championships took place in Montreal. And let's be honest: in the absence of Russians in our country, it was not followed as closely as we would have liked. We tell you about the five highlights of the tournament that you might have missed. And they deserve attention!

40-year-old champion with a 15-year pause in her career

Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps won gold medals in pairs skating at the tournament. Deanna became the oldest world champion: at the tournament in Montreal she was 40 years old - an unthinkable age for a figure skater! The record of the "age" champion held for almost a hundred years: it belonged to Ludovika Jakobsson from Finland, who won the World Pairs Championship in 1923 at the age of 38. Stellato-Dudek began her career as a singles player in the late nineties, and first competed at the adult level in the early two-thousandths. She ended her career in 2001. She studied to be a beautician, got married - but did not figure skate professionally. At 33, after 15 years without figure skating, she returned to the sport and began making strides again as a singles skater. However, so much had changed in skating during that time that Stellato-Dudek wasn't ready for so much competition - and decided to try her hand at pairs. Eight years after her return, the skater won gold at the World Championships.

Malinin is cooler than Chen

A year ago, the world applauded Nathan Chen: truly outstanding and in many ways unique. But now men's figure skating has a new hero. He has a Russian name, even though he is American - Ilya Malinin. After the short program he was in third place. In the free skating program he performed six quadruplets, including an axel, lutz, rittberger and salchow. No one but Malinin was able to do the axel at all. For the free program he received 227.79 points (this is 2.87 more than Chen's record, set in 2019), and for two rolls - 333.76.

Sakamoto is the first three-time gold medalist in 56 years

It is even a bit surprising that the reigning world champion does not have a quadruple jump. But Kaori Sakamoto doesn't need it: in the absence of Russian figure skaters, she simply has no competitors. The Japanese skater was not even in the top three after the short program, but still pulled herself together in the free skating and gave her best performance. Now Sakamoto has a unique achievement - she is the first figure skater in 56 years to win three World Championships in a row.

Shoma Uno isn't even in the top three.

The 26-year-old Japanese won the last two World Championships and was one of the brightest skaters in the world along with Nathan Chen. But his hegemony is over: Uno finished only fourth in Montreal. He was in the lead after the short skate, but messed up in the free skate: he felt insecure even in the warm-up, made mistakes in the execution of elements, and attempts to correct the situation only made it worse. As a result - 173.13 for the free skate (54.66 less than Malinin's) and a place outside the prize-winning three.

From 19th place to bronze - the way of Xiao Him Fa

After the short program, Frenchman Adam Xiao Him Fa was in 19th place. He performed last in the short program - and made an incredible number of mistakes. Thus, all jumping elements were done with dirty exits, he fell from the quadruple tulup. After such a ride he could not pass in the free skating, but the 77.49 points he got were enough.

In the free skating program Xiao Him Fa took a risk and landed a backflip. And what choice did he have, if the gap from the competitors after the first day of performances was more than 30 points, and the 19th place obviously did not promise to get into the top three? But the free skating program was good even without the banned technique: he rose from the bottom of the standings to third place, leaving the reigning champion behind him.