Your favorite worlds?

[AxelLover]

Looking back at all the figure skating world championships you remember, which are your favorite and why?

For me, it is definitely the 2017 worlds in Helsinki and there are two main reasons why. First, my faves actually won in all four disciplines (Yuzuru, Zhenya, Sui & Han, Virtue & Moir). The second reason is related purely to my favorite discipline. The men's event was simply breathtaking! To be more precise:

• The amount of clean quads was absolutely unprecedented.
• The were exceptionally many great and enjoyable performances.
• The top 6 skaters (Yuzuru, Shoma, Boyang, Javi, Patrick, Nathan) were just such a cool group. Three legends and three young supertalents.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it was the last worlds for Patrick, Javi and Denis Ten.

 

[macy]

being an American and a huge fan of Ashley Wagner, my biased answer is 2016. it was absolutely joyous to see a US woman finally get on the worlds podium after 10 years and her FS was absolutely chilling. it was not only the best international performance of her career, but also my favorite performance of all time to go back and watch. the emotions that build over the course of the program is intoxicating, and to finally see her put it together on the biggest stage and earn a medal after the trials and tribulations of her long career was just amazing. outside of Ashley, Medvedeva was also putting out the best skating of her career and Gracie had a stellar short program.

i'm also going to make 2022 an honorable mention. it was such a breath of fresh air and the dark cloud that has been hanging over the sport for a while had disappeared.

 

[Green Carrots]

I watched only three Worlds since I joined figure skating fandom in 2018. It's hard to choose the best cause each of them had some triumphs and disuppointments. But I think my favourite is 2021 because my lovely Mishina/Galliamov won in pairs in their debut and gave me so much incredible emotions... Then I was happy for Shcherbakova who won after so hard and challenging season for her and Tuktamysheva who set a really legendary achievement (still remember Liza crying from happiness after results announsement...). Then Nathan had some troubles in SP but slayed in Free Skate with his Rocketman... Still I had some disuppointments (Yuzu and Rika) so I can't say it was 'the best' Worlds but it gave me a lot of positive emotions.

And of course Junior Worlds 2020 when each podium was just incredible (Mozalev, Kagiyama, Gumennik, Valieva, Lyu, Panfilova/Rylov, Kazakova/Revia...)

 

[ladyjane]

It's difficult. I've been watching Figure Skating for so long!
1994 was a happy one for me with both Elvis and Phillipe shining and the unforgettable Veacheslav with a bronze medal. The beautiful Yuka Sato, and lets not forget the wonderful Sophie and Pascal who got a silver medal. In pairs I loved Evgenia/Vadim, Isabelle/Lloyd and Marina/Andrei, all of the medallists.

I enjoyed 2002 with Yagudin for the win among the men, Shen Xue and Hong Bo Zhao made me cry, I was happy for Irina and as always enjoyed watching Michelle, and of course that Shae Lynn and Victor got a silver (it was a gold in 2003).

The recent one I rather liked was 2018. Good to see Aljona/Bruno show us their Olympic win was not a fluke, that Nathan's miss at the OG was a bit of a fluke (although I enjoyed Yuzu winning that too), Gaby and Guillaume back on top and I really liked watching Kaetlyn win.

I liked the most recent one too, with Loena and Kaori, with Alexa and Brandon, with Shoma and with Gaby and Guilaume's superb RD!

Sorry. Just choosing one is too difficult.

 

[mrrice]

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to you all. Worlds in 1999, followed closely by 2001. For the experience, I have to go with 1999. Thank you Maria Butyrskaya for making my heart pound and giving me my favorite experience with meeting a skater. For the skating, I have to go with 2001. I had all event tickets and saw every discipline which was very exciting. I was amazed by the pairs and the pair men were All so handsome. David, Anton, and Hongbo we're all dreamy. Plushy and his Hi 5 to me is an obvious highlight.

 

[cabres]

2012 Nice.
Because I liked many of the skaters, I had many favorites: Caro, Akiko, Daisuke, Voloszozsar/Trankov, Kawaguti/Smirnov, Virtue/Moir; I was there in Nice and I enjoyed every moment.

 

[LadyB]

It's defo 2016 in Boston. Maybe it was because it was the first time in decades that I'd come back to watching an FS Worlds. But there was also...

The men's event with marvellous Javi's Guys'n'Dolls beating Yuzu's marvellous 'Seimei';
Duhamel/Radford - both programmes. Pure super class!
Stolbova/Klimov - prevented by injury to become medalists, but were the best Russian pair!
Tarasova/Morozov going Irish!
Piper & Paul and their beautiful Beatles Medley
Bobrova/Soloviev bouncing back from an unjustified doping ban
The beautiful Zhenya!!!

Having said all that, I'm still convinced the 2020 Worlds would have been one for the history books, hadn't it been for this horrible virus... that broke my heart. Here on GS we had the time of our lives and we were gearing up for something totally epic. Hopefully, sometime we can pick up where we left off.

 

[4everchan]

As a fan of Patrick and Tessa and Scott.... it is hard to pick because one year, Patrick would win but not Tessa and Scott and vice versa

except for 2012... so if i go with this in mind, I would also pick Nice 2012... but 2008, Buttle's win... 2010, Patrick's come back after a disappointing 5th at Vancouver games due to recovering from injury.... 2011 was pretty cool too for men...

But my favourite one should be Montreal 2024 as I plan to attend it! There is nothing like live competition.

 

[LadyB]

But my favourite one should be Montreal 2024 as I plan to attend it! There is nothing like live competition.

And everything around it. Man, so true!!!

 

[4everchan]

It's difficult. I've been watching Figure Skating for so long!
1994 was a happy one for me with both Elvis and Phillipe shining and the unforgettable Veacheslav with a bronze medal. The beautiful Yuka Sato, and lets not forget the wonderful Sophie and Pascal who got a silver medal. In pairs I loved Evgenia/Vadim, Isabelle/Lloyd and Marina/Andrei, all of the medallists.

I enjoyed 2002 with Yagudin for the win among the men, Shen Xue and Hong Bo Zhao made me cry, I was happy for Irina and as always enjoyed watching Michelle, and of course that Shae Lynn and Victor got a silver (it was a gold in 2003).

The recent one I rather liked was 2018. Good to see Aljona/Bruno show us their Olympic win was not a fluke, that Nathan's miss at the OG was a bit of a fluke (although I enjoyed Yuzu winning that too), Gaby and Guillaume back on top and I really liked watching Kaetlyn win.

I liked the most recent one too, with Loena and Kaori, with Alexa and Brandon, with Shoma and with Gaby and Guilaume's superb RD!

Sorry. Just choosing one is too difficult.

1994 was good indeed... and let's not forget Rahkamo Kokko

Susanna Rahkamo & Petri Kokko FD 1994 Worlds

Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko

youtu.be

 

[kolyadafan2002]

But I think my favourite is 2021

Then Nathan had some troubles in SP but slayed in Free Skate with his Rocketman...

IIRC Nathan did Philip Glass in worlds 2021, my favourite performance by him. How I wish he had kept it for the Olympics, as it was such a spectacular program.

Favourite worlds for me is difficult. 2017 was a spectacular competition... Chan, Hanyu, Javi, Chen, Shoma, Kolyada, Boyang, Denis Ten, Jason... such a lineup.
2016 I always have fond memories of. Javi standing before his free skate, the commentators buzzing that he had a chance to defend his title after being off with a sore foot. The clean free skate, the second quad salchow one of the best moments in a world championships.
2015... the emotions of Javi delivering a world championship.
2014... Hanyu coming from his triumphant Olympics, fighting hard with Tatsuki Machida, who any other day would have being a deserving world champion until Hanyu delivered his show-stopping free skate to finish less than 0.5 points ahead in a Japanese 1-2, both producing almost perfectly clean performances.

overall... I can't decide.

 

[ladyjane]

1994 was good indeed... and let's not forget Rahkamo Kokko

Susanna Rahkamo & Petri Kokko FD 1994 Worlds

Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko

youtu.be

Thank you for that. No, we mustn't forget them!

 

[Jeanie19]

2016 Worlds Boston. I only saw the ladies short program live in person, but to see Mao and Evgenia was such a dream. I watched all the events live and seeing my new favorite Deniss Vasiljevs was amazing. And Evgenia's W.E. is one of my all-time favorite.

 

[Jontor]

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to you all. Worlds in 1999, followed closely by 2001. For the experience, I have to go with 1999. Thank you Maria Butyrskaya for making my heart pound and giving me my favorite experience with meeting a skater. For the skating, I have to go with 2001. I had all event tickets and saw every discipline which was very exciting. I was amazed by the pairs and the pair men were All so handsome. David, Anton, and Hongbo we're all dreamy. Plushy and his Hi 5 to me is an obvious highlight.

My favourite is 1999 too. Maria was outstanding.

 

[Arigato]

2017. What a blast. And Tracy's face in the K&C, during the Men's FS, will always be something to watch if I need to laugh out loud.

 

[lariko]

Looking back at all the figure skating world championships you remember, which are your favorite and why?

For me, it is definitely the 2017 worlds in Helsinki and there are two main reasons why. First, my faves actually won in all four disciplines (Yuzuru, Zhenya, Sui & Han, Virtue & Moir). The second reason is related purely to my favorite discipline. The men's event was simply breathtaking! To be more precise:

• The amount of clean quads was absolutely unprecedented.
• The were exceptionally many great and enjoyable performances.
• The top 6 skaters (Yuzuru, Shoma, Boyang, Javi, Patrick, Nathan) were just such a cool group. Three legends and three young supertalents.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it was the last worlds for Patrick, Javi and Denis Ten.

Junior Worlds 2020. Mozalev’s win was epic!

If only senior count, I actually liked last worlds because Uno won big gold. Oh, and 2019 with Zagitova getting her last gold for carrier Grand Slam. Was really good too.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

IIRC Nathan did Philip Glass in worlds 2021, my favourite performance by him. How I wish he had kept it for the Olympics, as it was such a spectacular program.

Favourite worlds for me is difficult. 2017 was a spectacular competition... Chan, Hanyu, Javi, Chen, Shoma, Kolyada, Boyang, Denis Ten, Jason... such a lineup.
2016 I always have fond memories of. Javi standing before his free skate, the commentators buzzing that he had a chance to defend his title after being off with a sore foot. The clean free skate, the second quad salchow one of the best moments in a world championships.
2015... the emotions of Javi delivering a world championship.
2014... Hanyu coming from his triumphant Olympics, fighting hard with Tatsuki Machida, who any other day would have being a deserving world champion until Hanyu delivered his show-stopping free skate to finish less than 0.5 points ahead in a Japanese 1-2, both producing almost perfectly clean performances.

overall... I can't decide.

2014-18 was such a good quad, especially for the men and pairs. Although not Worlds, 2015 GPF was a real highlight for me.

I may be influenced by nostalgia though, because 2014 is when I started skating/properly watching skating. Also, many of the skaters making their senior debuts were the same age as me, so we sort of grew up together This must be how kids born in the 80s felt reading Harry Potter...

I also like looking back on the 2000s, seeing the 'veterans/recent retirees' of my time in their fresh-faced heyday, competing with the veterans of their time. 2008 Worlds in Gothenburg is a nice example: Jeff Buttle and Delobel/Schoenfelder getting their long-awaited gold, baby Patrick Chan and Virtue/Moir on the rise, the maturing Yuna-Mao rivalry, the iconic cyberswan Takahashi...

 

[LadyB]

2014-18 was such a good quad, especially for the men and pairs. Although not Worlds, 2015 GPF was a real highlight for me.

Totally agree! Everyone in there was as good as each other, and of course the icing on the cake for me: Stolbova/Klimov's win with two fantastic programmes

 

[kolyadafan2002]

2014-18 was such a good quad, especially for the men and pairs. Although not Worlds, 2015 GPF was a real highlight for me.

I may be influenced by nostalgia though, because 2014 is when I started skating/properly watching skating.

2013 was the first time I took interest in international skating, and I was really hyped for the Chan Hanyu Javi battles going into 2014.

One of the best things about the 2014-18 quad was how they all pushed each other to become better, and the response from Javi and Hanyu to the young, hungry multiple quad jumpers. And of course, in 2016 4CCs where Chan came back with a real statement.
And 2018 olympics, where Hanyus Semei to me became one of the greatest free skates of all time. And the SP battle with clean Hanyu and Javi, and the free skate comeback from Chen.

In the recent quad, Chen hit his peak when Hanyu started having consistency issues, it's a real shame that we never got to see prime Hanyu vs prime Chen (2018 Hanyu vs 2021 Chen for me). I hope Yuma vs Ilia will deliver us with some great battles, and that they will push each other far though.

In terms of Pairs, the recent quad is dissapointing due to the decline in numbers more than anything. Sui/Han have delivered us a lot, but the quantity of pairs since 2018 has gone downhill.
Its been fantastic for ice dance though with P/C H/D vs the Russians, although in 2014-18 we got fights between two all time great dance couples (V/M vs P/C). It felt a bit empty as it lacked this spark that V/M bought, and consequently I don't think P/C produced the same magic that they did in the past (they didn't need to given that they were the best without doing so). Still, H/D were just sooo good with skating skills, and C/B bought a lot of entertainment.

2018 olympics was for me, the best olympics in recent time. 2014 was a bit of a dud in comparison, with men falling apart, controversy in women etc. 2018 we had a huge battle of giants in ice dance, a strong, well performing field of men. Great pairs competition. Zagitova vs Medvedeva Women with many quality women also in the podium hunt.

Worlds is more difficult and conflicting, so I'll just say all of the 2014-18 quad.

 

[AxelLover]

One of the best things about the 2014-18 quad was how they all pushed each other to become better, and the response from Javi and Hanyu to the young, hungry multiple quad jumpers. And of course, in 2016 4CCs where Chan came back with a real statement.
And 2018 olympics, where Hanyus Semei to me became one of the greatest free skates of all time. And the SP battle with clean Hanyu and Javi, and the free skate comeback from Chen.

Well said, I totally agree.