# 2008 World Figure Skating Championships

The 2008 World Figure Skating Championships was a senior international figure skating competition in the 2007–08 figure skating season. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. The event was held at the Scandinavium arena in Gothenburg, Sweden from March 16 to 23.

## Qualification

The competition was open to skaters from ISU member nations who had reached the age of 15 by July 1, 2007. The corresponding competition for younger skaters was the 2008 World Junior Championships.
Based on the results of the 2007 World Championships, each country was allowed between one and three entries per discipline. National associations selected their entries based on their own criteria.
Due to the large number of entries at the World Championships, only the top 24 single skaters and top 20 pairs advanced to the free skating after the short program. In ice dancing, the top 30 couples in the compulsory dance advanced to the original dance, and the top 24 couples after the original dance advanced to the free dance.

## Medals summary
### Medalists

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men | Jeffrey Buttle | Brian Joubert | Johnny Weir |
| Ladies | Mao Asada | Carolina Kostner | Kim Yuna |
| Pairs | Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy | Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao | Jessica Dubé / Bryce Davison |
| Ice dancing | Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder | Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir | Jana Khokhlova / Sergei Novitski |

### Medals by country

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Canada (CAN) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | France (FRA) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Germany (GER) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Japan (JPN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | China (CHN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Italy (ITA) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Russia (RUS) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | South Korea (KOR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | United States (USA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (9 entries) | Totals (9 entries) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |

## Competition notes

The compulsory dance was the Argentine Tango.
Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang from China set a new world record of 74.36 points under the ISU Judging System for pairs' short program.
European champion ice dancers Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin (RUS) withdrew before the event due to an injury to his knee. They were replaced by Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev. Four Continents and Grand Prix Final bronze medalist Evan Lysacek withdrew before the event due to injury. He was replaced by US pewter medalist Jeremy Abbott.

## Results
### Men

Jeffrey Buttle was the sixth Canadian man to win the world title. His win set off a controversy because he did not attempt a quadruple jump. Brian Joubert the silver medalist criticized the system for producing a winner who did not complete or attempt a quadruple jump. This set off the first of many debates on the value of the quads and what men's figure skating should be about that would culminate in the 2010 Olympic Quadruple jump controversy.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Jeffrey Buttle | Canada | 245.17 | 1 | 82.10 | 1 | 163.07 |
| 2 | Brian Joubert | France | 231.22 | 6 | 77.75 | 2 | 153.47 |
| 3 | Johnny Weir | United States | 221.84 | 2 | 80.79 | 5 | 141.05 |
| 4 | Daisuke Takahashi | Japan | 220.11 | 3 | 80.40 | 6 | 139.71 |
| 5 | Stéphane Lambiel | Switzerland | 217.88 | 5 | 79.12 | 7 | 138.76 |
| 6 | Kevin van der Perren | Belgium | 216.02 | 9 | 70.24 | 3 | 145.78 |
| 7 | Sergei Voronov | Russia | 209.93 | 15 | 65.26 | 4 | 144.67 |
| 8 | Takahiko Kozuka | Japan | 205.15 | 8 | 70.91 | 8 | 134.24 |
| 9 | Patrick Chan | Canada | 203.55 | 7 | 72.81 | 11 | 130.74 |
| 10 | Stephen Carriere | United States | 201.69 | 11 | 68.20 | 9 | 133.49 |
| 11 | Jeremy Abbott | United States | 197.26 | 14 | 65.61 | 10 | 131.65 |
| 12 | Sergei Davydov | Belarus | 196.79 | 12 | 68.19 | 12 | 128.60 |
| 13 | Adrian Schultheiss | Sweden | 194.39 | 13 | 66.45 | 13 | 127.94 |
| 14 | Kristoffer Berntsson | Sweden | 193.72 | 10 | 69.02 | 15 | 124.70 |
| 15 | Tomáš Verner | Czech Republic | 191.94 | 4 | 79.87 | 20 | 112.07 |
| 16 | Karel Zelenka | Italy | 187.65 | 17 | 64.05 | 16 | 123.60 |
| 17 | Gregor Urbas | Slovenia | 187.48 | 18 | 61.65 | 14 | 125.83 |
| 18 | Yannick Ponsero | France | 182.06 | 16 | 64.46 | 18 | 117.60 |
| 19 | Yasuharu Nanri | Japan | 179.88 | 20 | 60.89 | 17 | 118.99 |
| 20 | Anton Kovalevski | Ukraine | 178.13 | 21 | 60.74 | 19 | 117.39 |
| 21 | Igor Macypura | Slovakia | 169.93 | 19 | 61.19 | 21 | 108.74 |
| 22 | Jamal Othman | Switzerland | 164.02 | 22 | 57.75 | 22 | 106.27 |
| 23 | Li Chengjiang | China | 155.75 | 23 | 53.99 | 23 | 101.76 |
| 24 | Abzal Rakimgaliev | Kazakhstan | 149.92 | 24 | 51.58 | 24 | 98.34 |
| Free Skating Not Reached ||||||||
| 25 | Alexandr Kazakov | Belarus | | 25 | 51.00 | | |
| 26 | Michael Chrolenko | Norway | | 26 | 50.50 | | |
| 27 | Pavel Kaška | Czech Republic | | 27 | 49.98 | | |
| 28 | Boris Martinec | Croatia | | 28 | 48.91 | | |
| 29 | Elliot Hilton | United Kingdom | | 29 | 48.10 | | |
| 30 | Javier Fernández | Spain | | 30 | 47.87 | | |
| 31 | Mikko Minkkinen | Finland | | 31 | 47.15 | | |
| 32 | Peter Liebers | Germany | | 32 | 46.96 | | |
| 33 | Zoltán Kelemen | Romania | | 33 | 45.58 | | |
| 34 | Maxim Shipov | Israel | | 34 | 44.32 | | |
| 35 | Sean Carlow | Australia | | 35 | 43.98 | | |
| 36 | Luis Hernández | Mexico | | 36 | 42.74 | | |
| 37 | Manuel Koll | Austria | | 37 | 42.47 | | |
| 38 | Justin Pietersen | South Africa | | 38 | 38.67 | | |
| 39 | Naiden Borichev | Bulgaria | | 39 | 38.36 | | |
| 40 | Konstantin Tupikov | Poland | | 40 | 37.47 | | |
| 41 | Tristan Thode | New Zealand | | 41 | 35.29 | | |
| 42 | Kutay Eryoldas | Turkey | | 42 | 35.04 | | |
| 43 | Danil Privalov | Azerbaijan | | 43 | 34.73 | | |
| 44 | Tigran Vardanjan | Hungary | | 44 | 32.37 | | |
| 45 | Saulius Ambrulevičius | Lithuania | | 45 | 28.63 | | |
| WD | Alban Préaubert | France | | | | | |

### Ladies

Carolina Kostner led the short program with 64.28 points, just 0.18 points higher than Mao Asada who was in second. Kim Yuna fell on her triple Lutz, leaving her in fifth place after the short program. Despite popping a triple lutz at the end of her program and saving multiple jump landings, Kim earned the top free skate score of 123.38 points. Kostner received negative grade of execution on five of her seven jumping passes but still managed the third highest free score. Asada, one of two women attempting the triple Axel in the competition, fell during the takeoff of the axel, but still managed to do two triple-triples and score 1.46 points higher than Kostner, securing the gold medal. Silver went to Kostner and Kim received the bronze medal.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Mao Asada | Japan | 185.56 | 2 | 64.10 | 2 | 121.46 |
| 2 | Carolina Kostner | Italy | 184.68 | 1 | 64.28 | 3 | 120.40 |
| 3 | Kim Yuna | South Korea | 183.23 | 5 | 59.85 | 1 | 123.38 |
| 4 | Yukari Nakano | Japan | 177.40 | 3 | 61.10 | 4 | 116.30 |
| 5 | Joannie Rochette | Canada | 174.12 | 6 | 59.53 | 5 | 114.59 |
| 6 | Sarah Meier | Switzerland | 171.88 | 7 | 59.49 | 6 | 112.39 |
| 7 | Kimmie Meissner | United States | 149.74 | 9 | 57.25 | 12 | 92.49 |
| 8 | Laura Lepistö | Finland | 147.26 | 21 | 45.41 | 7 | 101.85 |
| 9 | Kiira Korpi | Finland | 145.73 | 4 | 60.58 | 17 | 85.15 |
| 10 | Beatrisa Liang | United States | 145.29 | 10 | 52.81 | 13 | 92.48 |
| 11 | Júlia Sebestyén | Hungary | 145.17 | 19 | 47.04 | 8 | 98.13 |
| 12 | Annette Dytrt | Germany | 144.31 | 12 | 50.99 | 11 | 93.32 |
| 13 | Valentina Marchei | Italy | 142.93 | 17 | 48.89 | 9 | 94.04 |
| 14 | Mira Leung | Canada | 140.59 | 14 | 50.69 | 14 | 89.90 |
| 15 | Jelena Glebova | Estonia | 140.10 | 20 | 46.26 | 10 | 93.84 |
| 16 | Ashley Wagner | United States | 137.40 | 11 | 51.49 | 15 | 85.91 |
| 17 | Ksenia Doronina | Russia | 135.25 | 15 | 49.94 | 16 | 85.31 |
| 18 | Viktoria Helgesson | Sweden | 127.96 | 16 | 49.68 | 20 | 78.28 |
| 19 | Kim Na-young | South Korea | 127.32 | 18 | 47.96 | 19 | 79.36 |
| 20 | Elene Gedevanishvili | Georgia | 125.99 | 23 | 44.06 | 18 | 81.93 |
| 21 | Anastasia Gimazetdinova | Uzbekistan | 124.92 | 13 | 50.84 | 21 | 74.08 |
| 22 | Tamar Katz | Israel | 116.86 | 24 | 43.58 | 22 | 73.28 |
| 23 | Melinda Sherilyn Wang | Chinese Taipei | 116.12 | 22 | 44.77 | 23 | 71.35 |
| WD | Miki Ando | Japan | | 8 | 59.21 | | |
| Free Skating Not Reached ||||||||
| 25 | Jenna McCorkell | United Kingdom | | 25 | 42.55 | | |
| 26 | Ivana Reitmayerová | Slovakia | | 26 | 41.79 | | |
| 27 | Tuğba Karademir | Turkey | | 27 | 38.71 | | |
| 28 | Mérovée Ephrem | Monaco | | 28 | 38.61 | | |
| 29 | Victoria Muniz | Puerto Rico | | 29 | 38.41 | | |
| 30 | Sonia Lafuente | Spain | | 30 | 38.35 | | |
| 31 | Liu Yan | China | | 31 | 38.13 | | |
| 32 | Nella Simaová | Czech Republic | | 32 | 37.72 | | |
| 33 | Sonia Radeva | Bulgaria | | 33 | 37.44 | | |
| 34 | Anna Jurkiewicz | Poland | | 34 | 37.09 | | |
| 35 | Irina Movchan | Ukraine | | 35 | 36.17 | | |
| 36 | Julia Sheremet | Belarus | | 36 | 34.69 | | |
| 37 | Tina Wang | Australia | | 37 | 34.00 | | |
| 38 | Candice Didier | France | | 38 | 33.91 | | |
| 39 | Roxana Luca | Romania | | 39 | 32.07 | | |
| 40 | Viviane Käser | Switzerland | | 40 | 30.37 | | |
| 41 | Mirna Libric | Croatia | | 41 | 30.20 | | |
| 42 | Ksenia Jastsenjski | Serbia | | 42 | 29.05 | | |
| 43 | Barbara Klerk | Belgium | | 43 | 28.38 | | |
| 44 | Loretta Hamui | Mexico | | 44 | 28.15 | | |
| 45 | Gracielle Jeanne Tan | Philippines | | 45 | 27.85 | | |
| 46 | Denise Koegl | Austria | | 46 | 27.36 | | |
| 47 | Charissa Tansomboon | Thailand | | 47 | 27.28 | | |
| 48 | Stasia Rage | Latvia | | 48 | 26.45 | | |
| 49 | Tamami Ono | Hong Kong | | 49 | 26.20 | | |
| 50 | Maria-Elena Papasotiriou | Greece | | 50 | 25.95 | | |
| 51 | Lejeanne Marais | South Africa | | 51 | 25.85 | | |
| 52 | Morgan Figgins | New Zealand | | 52 | 25.16 | | |
| 53 | Beatrice Rozinskaite | Lithuania | | 53 | 24.02 | | |

### Pairs

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy | Germany | 202.86 | 2 | 72.00 | 1 | 130.86 |
| 2 | Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao | China | 197.82 | 1 | 74.36 | 3 | 123.46 |
| 3 | Jessica Dubé / Bryce Davison | Canada | 192.78 | 4 | 68.66 | 2 | 124.12 |
| 4 | Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov | Russia | 191.33 | 3 | 71.42 | 4 | 119.91 |
| 5 | Pang Qing / Tong Jian | China | 186.78 | 5 | 67.87 | 5 | 118.91 |
| 6 | Meagan Duhamel / Craig Buntin | Canada | 169.61 | 7 | 60.01 | 6 | 109.60 |
| 7 | Maria Mukhortova / Maxim Trankov | Russia | 166.64 | 6 | 64.09 | 9 | 102.55 |
| 8 | Anabelle Langlois / Cody Hay | Canada | 164.67 | 9 | 59.43 | 7 | 105.24 |
| 9 | Tatiana Volosozhar / Stanislav Morozov | Ukraine | 159.95 | 8 | 59.53 | 10 | 100.42 |
| 10 | Rena Inoue / John Baldwin | United States | 157.20 | 10 | 53.83 | 8 | 103.37 |
| 11 | Brooke Castile / Benjamin Okolski | United States | 146.03 | 12 | 49.59 | 11 | 96.44 |
| 12 | Dong Huibo / Wu Yiming | China | 142.83 | 11 | 50.49 | 12 | 92.34 |
| 13 | Laura Magitteri / Ondřej Hotárek | Italy | 126.38 | 14 | 42.18 | 13 | 84.20 |
| 14 | Adeline Canac / Maximin Coia | France | 124.68 | 16 | 41.75 | 14 | 82.93 |
| 15 | Stacey Kemp / David King | United Kingdom | 123.98 | 13 | 44.28 | 15 | 79.70 |
| 16 | Dominika Piątkowska / Dmitri Khromin | Poland | 111.94 | 17 | 38.32 | 16 | 73.62 |
| 17 | Hayley Anne Sacks / Vadim Akolzin | Israel | 111.23 | 15 | 41.96 | 17 | 69.27 |
| 18 | Marina Aganina / Dmitri Zobnin | Uzbekistan | 97.31 | 18 | 35.24 | 19 | 62.07 |
| 19 | Ariel Fay Gagnon / Chad Tsagris | Greece | 95.65 | 19 | 33.34 | 18 | 62.31 |
| 20 | Amy Ireland / Michael Bahoric | Croatia | 77.39 | 20 | 26.57 | 20 | 50.82 |
| WD | Ekaterina Kostenko / Roman Talan | Ukraine | | | | | |

### Ice dancing

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | CD | CD | OD | OD | FD | FD |
| 1 | Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder | France | 212.94 | 1 | 40.73 | 1 | 67.25 | 2 | 104.96 |
| 2 | Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir | Canada | 208.80 | 2 | 38.71 | 3 | 64.81 | 1 | 105.28 |
| 3 | Jana Khokhlova / Sergei Novitski | Russia | 203.26 | 3 | 37.98 | 2 | 65.99 | 5 | 99.29 |
| 4 | Tanith Belbin / Benjamin Agosto | United States | 203.00 | 5 | 35.02 | 4 | 64.69 | 3 | 103.29 |
| 5 | Federica Faiella / Massimo Scali | Italy | 201.91 | 4 | 37.15 | 5 | 63.55 | 4 | 101.21 |
| 6 | Meryl Davis / Charlie White | United States | 191.19 | 7 | 34.80 | 7 | 60.36 | 6 | 96.03 |
| 7 | Nathalie Péchalat / Fabian Bourzat | France | 190.51 | 6 | 34.82 | 6 | 60.67 | 7 | 95.02 |
| 8 | Sinead Kerr / John Kerr | United Kingdom | 186.94 | 8 | 33.48 | 8 | 59.86 | 8 | 93.60 |
| 9 | Alexandra Zaretski / Roman Zaretski | Israel | 179.21 | 9 | 32.51 | 9 | 58.10 | 10 | 88.60 |
| 10 | Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte | Italy | 179.03 | 11 | 31.52 | 10 | 57.05 | 9 | 90.46 |
| 11 | Kristin Fraser / Igor Lukanin | Azerbaijan | 173.95 | 10 | 31.86 | 11 | 56.35 | 11 | 85.74 |
| 12 | Kimberly Navarro / Brent Bommentre | United States | 165.90 | 12 | 31.48 | 13 | 52.10 | 14 | 82.32 |
| 13 | Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev | Russia | 164.72 | 16 | 29.12 | 12 | 52.88 | 13 | 82.72 |
| 14 | Katherine Copely / Deividas Stagniūnas | Lithuania | 164.28 | 13 | 29.85 | 14 | 51.66 | 12 | 82.77 |
| 15 | Ekaterina Rubleva / Ivan Shefer | Russia | 160.37 | 15 | 29.14 | 15 | 49.52 | 15 | 81.71 |
| 16 | Cathy Reed / Chris Reed | Japan | 155.15 | 18 | 28.16 | 18 | 47.70 | 16 | 79.29 |
| 17 | Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje | Canada | 154.84 | 20 | 27.74 | 17 | 48.62 | 17 | 78.48 |
| 18 | Anna Zadorozhniuk / Sergei Verbillo | Ukraine | 153.25 | 14 | 29.31 | 16 | 49.17 | 21 | 74.77 |
| 19 | Allie Hann-McCurdy / Michael Coreno | Canada | 153.13 | 17 | 28.33 | 19 | 47.01 | 18 | 77.79 |
| 20 | Nelli Zhiganshina / Alexander Gazsi | Germany | 150.82 | 19 | 28.07 | 21 | 45.52 | 19 | 77.23 |
| 21 | Barbora Silná / Dmitri Matsjuk | Austria | 147.21 | 21 | 24.85 | 20 | 46.90 | 20 | 75.46 |
| 22 | Yu Xiaoyang / Wang Chen | China | 139.20 | 23 | 23.90 | 23 | 43.97 | 23 | 71.33 |
| 23 | Kamila Hájková / David Vincour | Czech Republic | 138.63 | 22 | 24.06 | 25 | 41.91 | 22 | 72.66 |
| 24 | Leonie Krail / Oscar Peter | Switzerland | 126.50 | 25 | 22.38 | 22 | 44.10 | 24 | 60.02 |
| Free Dance Not Reached ||||||||||
| 25 | Krisztina Barta / Ádám Tóth | Hungary | 64.08 | 27 | 21.44 | 24 | 42.64 | | |
| 26 | Joanna Budner / Jan Mościcki | Poland | 62.28 | 24 | 23.61 | 28 | 38.67 | | |
| 27 | Danielle O'Brien / Gregory Merriman | Australia | 60.12 | 28 | 20.24 | 27 | 39.88 | | |
| 28 | Ksenia Shmirina / Egor Maistrov | Belarus | 59.37 | 29 | 18.87 | 26 | 40.50 | | |
| 29 | Yu Sun Hye / Ramil Sarkulov | Uzbekistan | 56.93 | 26 | 21.85 | 30 | 35.08 | | |
| 30 | Ina Demireva / Juri Kurakin | Bulgaria | 53.38 | 30 | 17.75 | 29 | 35.63 | | |
| Original Dance Not Reached ||||||||||
| 31 | Kristina Kiudmaa / Aleksei Trohlev | Estonia | | 31 | 16.72 | | | | |

## Multiple spots for 2009 Worlds

The following countries have earned more than one entry to the 2009 World Championships based on performance at the 2008 World Championships.
| Spots | Men | Ladies | Pairs | Dance |
| 3 | Canada Japan United States | Japan | Canada China Germany Russia | France United States |
| 2 | Belgium France Russia Sweden Switzerland | Canada Finland Italy South Korea Switzerland United States | Ukraine United States | Canada Israel Italy Russia United Kingdom |