Prague: US star Ilia Malinin returns to the ice seeking the solace of a third straight world figure skating title after his shocking collapse at the Winter Olympics, while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto targets a fourth women’s gold starting Wednesday.
French ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry are the only Olympic figure skating champions competing in Prague a month after the Milan-Cortina Games. Olympic men’s champion Mikhail Shaidorov and women’s gold medallist Alysa Liu are both skipping the final event of the season.
Kazakh Shaidorov pulled off one of the biggest shocks of the Winter Olympics as highly-fancied Malinan fell to his first defeat in over two years. The 21-year-old, known as the “Quad God” for his quadruple-jumping skills, will be looking for redemption after tumbling to an eighth-place finish.
Malinin admitted his first Olympic experience was “so stressful, so much pressure”. “But we have to get up and keep going no matter what. “It’s not the last of me.” Yuma Kagiyama, a four-time world medallist, and Japanese teammate Shun Sato won silver and bronze at the Olympics and are in the mix for the podium along with France’s Adam Siao Him Fa.
In Milan, Sakamoto was in tears as she took silver behind American Liu, who had also ended the Japanese star’s three-year reign as world champion last year. The world championships will be the final event for 25-year-old Sakamoto and she wants a golden farewell.
Sakamoto has unfinished business after the “frustration” of missing Olympic gold by just 1.89 points. “I know I left something out there,” Sakamoto said. A Japanese podium sweep is possible in the women’s event with world bronze medallist Chiba Mone finishing fourth in Milan.
However, US three-time national champion Amber Glenn, 26, could achieve her first world medal, surging to fifth at the Olympics after placing 13th in the short programme. Ice dancers Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron want to cap a hugely successful first season skating together.
Cizeron, 31, and 33-year-old Fournier Beaudry upset reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the USA after a turbulent period. Chock and Bates will not be competing at worlds.
“We’d really like to be world champions together,” said Cizeron, who won five world titles with previous partner Gabriella Papadakis. The French skaters are recovering from illness after their success in Italy.
