Ilia Malinin dominated Thursday’s short program, achieving a personal best of 111.29. He was joined on the small podium by Adam Siao Him Fa and Aleksandr Selevko. The rivalry for the title of the 2026 World Champion came to a head during Saturday’s free skate. The event was tense from the very first to the very last performance, delivering everything that figure skating fans may have hoped for
Andreas Nordeback opened the free skate with a great performance that earned him 152.07 points and, together with the short program, gave him a total of 224.66. The score set the benchmark for all the other skaters to aim for. Genrikh Gartung’s less-than-clean skate put him far from the possibility of improving his position. Yudong Chen, on the other hand, delivered a great performance that led to a total competition score of 225.02, making him the new leader, despite achieving a free skate score lower than that of Nordeback. Francois Pitot, Georgi Rashtenko, and Tamir Kuperman all had issues while on ice, and thus none of them managed to become a part of the fight for the top spot.
Adam Hagara’s skate was good enough to dethrone both Nordeback and Chen, putting him first in the free skate and the total competition. He wasn’t surpassed by Gabriele Frangipani, but had to give the lead to Vladimir Saimolov, who acquired a total of 233.41 points. The Pole didn’t get to enjoy the top spot for long as his score was beaten by the 248.41 points achieved by Nika Egadze. Since neither Donovan Carrilo nor Deniss Vasiljevs managed to surpass it, the Georgian remained in the lead of group two.
Kyrylo Marsak’s skate earned him his season best competition total, but was not good enough for the lead. The same could not be said about Kevin Aymoz, who also beat his season best, with 269.13 for both the short program and the free skate. This put him in the current leader’s chair, from which he wouldn’t move for quite a while, as no remaining skater from the third group was able to surpass him. Jacob Sanchez, Lukas Britschgi, Daniel Grassl, and Andrew Torgashev all tried their best, but couldn’t reach the benchmark set by the Frenchman.
Finally, the time came for the group everyone had been waiting for. Filled with some of the most talented active skaters, it promised excitement and a tight fight for the title. When all was said and done, that was exactly what it had delivered.
After an unsatisfactory short program, Yuma Kagiyama was the first skater from the group to appear on the ice. He delivered a program that was as flawless as it was beautiful, earning him a personal best free skate score of 212.87. Together with the points he had acquired on Thursday, the skater jumped into the lead with 306.67 as his total. Although both Stephen Gogolev and Shun Sato had perfectly clean skates, neither performed well enough to dethrone the Japanese leader. Selevko fell during his program, but still received scores high enough to achieve a season best in both the free skate and the total competition.
Then the time came for the only two skaters who could deny Kagiyama his win. Siao Him Fa went onto the ice first. His free skate was not clean, including a fall and a few missteps that led to an unsatisfactory total score of 271.56, which put him far from the podium. Malinin, on the other hand, delivered exactly the performance he needed, despite omitting his famed quadruple Axel. He earned 212.11 points on the free skate and 329.4 points total, becoming the World Champion for the third consecutive time. Kaigyama and Sato joined him on the podium.
After the competition, Malinin spoke to the press and admitted that he was relieved to be done with the season:
“I wanted to skate for myself and enjoy every moment on the ice, and have fun out there, and that’s how I did”
The Championships as a whole were in the shadow of the Olympics: there was no interview or press conference during which they weren’t mentioned at least once. Malinin admitted that, in comparison to the grand competition, the event in Prague felt relatively easy. The credit for that goes at least partially to the mindset he had adopted:
“Coming here [after the Olympics], it felt like no pressure at all. I blocked out all the pressure people put on me and skated for myself.”
In the end, Malinin’s approach paid off. He is going to leave Prague a championship richer, having made history on the O2 Arena’s ice. Although he was the one to take the victory, he wasn’t the only skater to deliver a commendable performance. The free skate was one to remember, both because of its highs and lows. Now, it remains to be seen what the skaters will prepare for the upcoming season.
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