ISU Figure Skating World Championships 2022: Why It Matters

The International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating World Championships (usually abbreviated “Worlds”) takes place in late March and is the last major senior competition of the figure skating season which lasts from fall to early spring. A gold medal at Worlds is the second most impressive achievement that a skater can attain, only behind an Olympic gold. Even in an Olympic year, Worlds is still special because it is treated as a culmination and celebration of four years of hard work from these elite athletes. ISU Worlds 2022 was the same, and much more. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ISU banned any Russian or Belarusian athlete from competing in any ISU-sanctioned competitions. Though many supported this decision, it also drew many fans away from watching Worlds because without the Russians, the podium would not include the actual best skaters in the world. 

Historically, Russian skaters have dominated the competition, a trend that has only intensified in the past few years, which have seen a dramatic rise in the level of the Russian ladies. For example, the 2021 World Championships saw a Russian sweep of the womens podium, and in 2019, the podium consisted of only women who trained in Russia. Elite training camps like Team Tutberitdze and CSKA continually churn out young women capable of pushing the technical boundaries of the field every year. Though to spectators, the 2022 Olympic Figure Skating may have been overshadowed by the doping scandal surrounding the 15 year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva, it also saw numerous technical records being broken–many by Russian skaters: Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump Olympic history and Alexandra “Sasha” Trusova became the first woman to land five quads and four different types of quads at the Olympics. The Olympic podium, which saw Anna Shcherbakova win the gold medal and Trusova win the silver, while not completely unexpected, was determined after a series of highly stressful (and in my opinion, downright depressing) days for both the skaters and spectators due to the ongoing doping investigation. The 2022 Olympics brought into question the integrity of the sport as a whole, and even resulted in some parents even taking their children out of skating after seeing the meltdowns from a few of the Russian ladies due to their own disappointment as well as pressure from their federation.

The 2022 ISU World Championships were, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air from what had occurred less than a month before. In the absence of the Russian skaters, whose combined technical and artistic scores would have most likely resulted in another Russian sweep, the World Championships became a higher-stakes event. It felt more like a competition than a fight for fourth, or maybe, in the event of a major catastrophe like the 2022 Olympics, a battle for bronze. As opposed to past years where the podium was effectively decided from the start, there were many competitors of a similar skill level– all of whom were capable of earning a podium spot. As a result, the performances were more refined because skaters knew that they had to skate cleanly and maturely in order to earn a medal, rather than relying on high base value scores to compensate for lackluster artistry and sloppy jump landings - and they delivered. Furthermore, we got to see many faces on the ice that had previously been overshadowed by the Russians. For the first time in a while, all three medalists in the ladies field represented different countries, none of which were Russia: Kaori Sakamoto from Japan won gold, Loena Hendrickx from Belgium won silver (even more impressive because she represented a small federation), and Alysa Liu from the United States won bronze. The sense of satisfaction and jubilant tears we saw on the podium were a complete reversal of the outrage and frustrated tears that defined the 2022 Olympics. It was refreshing to see a senior ladies podium that included mostly women in their 20’s rather than teenagers with relatively short-lived careers. 

ISU Worlds 2022 was a healing step for figure skating after the Olympic debacle, reminding us that apart from the Russians, there are still talented figure skaters all over the world who deserve our attention. Hopefully, the sport will continue along this path over future seasons and athletes’ physical and mental health will be better prioritized.