World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships are an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU). Medals are awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The World Championships are considered the most prestigious annual event in figure skating, second only to the Olympics.
The first World Championships were held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1896. The competitors were from Germany, Austria, or Russia and were all men. A separate competition for women was established in 1905 and the men's and women's competitions were held separately for several years. Pair skating was added in 1908 and ice dance in 1952.
The corresponding competition for junior-level skaters is the World Junior Championships. The corresponding competition for senior-level synchronized skating is the World Synchronized Skating Championships and for junior-level, the World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships.
Ulrich Salchow of Sweden holds the record for the most World championships won in men's singles (with ten), while Sonja Henie of Norway holds the record for the most championships won in women's singles (also with ten). Irina Rodnina of the Soviet Union holds the record for the most championships won in pair skating (with ten); four while partnered with Alexei Ulanov and another six with Alexander Zaitsev. Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov of the Soviet Union hold the record for the most championships won in ice dance (with six).
The 2026 World Championships are scheduled to be held in Prague, Czech Republic.
The International Skating Union formed in 1892 to govern international competition in speed and figure skating. The first championship, known as the Championship of the Internationale Eislauf-Vereingung, was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1896. There were four competitors and the winner of the event was Gilbert Fuchs of Germany.
The championships were presumed to be all-male since competitive skating was generally viewed as a male sport. However, there were no specific rules regarding the gender of competitors. In 1902, Madge Syers of Great Britain entered the championships and won the silver medal. The 1903 ISU Congress considered gender issues, but passed no new rules. The 1905 ISU Congress established a second-class women's competition called the ISU Championships rather than the World Championships, and winners were known as ISU champions and not world champions. Men's and women's events were generally held separately. The first women's competition was held in Davos, Switzerland, in 1906; the event was won by Syers.
The first pair skating competition was held in Saint Petersburg in 1908. Early championships for both women and pairs – previously called ISU Championships – were retroactively given World Championship status in 1924.
In the early years, judges were invited by the host country and were often natives to that country. At the 1927 women's event in Oslo, Norway, three of the five judges were Norwegian; those three judges awarded first place to Norwegian competitor Sonja Henie, while the Austrian and German judges placed defending champion Herma Szabo of Austria first. The controversial result stood, giving Henie her first world title, but the controversy led to the ISU introducing a new rule that allowed no more than one judge per country on the panel.
The 1930 World Championships in New York City were the first to be held outside Europe and combined all three competitions into one event for the first time. Ice dance debuted at the 1952 World Championships. Compulsory figures were retired from the World Championships after 1990.
Every four years, because the World Championships take place about a month after the Winter Olympics, a number of Olympic medalists tend to be absent from the competition. Many skaters need time to rest due to physical and mental exhaustion, and some Olympic medalists chose to cash in on their success by turning professional.
The World Championships have been cancelled 16 times in the competition's history: from 1915 through 1921 due to World War I; from 1940 through 1946 due to World War II; in 1961 as a result of the loss of the entire U.S. figure skating team in the crash of Sabena Flight 548; and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skaters may compete at the World Championships if they represent a member nation of the International Skating Union and are selected by their federation. Member nations select their entries according to their own criteria. Some countries rely on the results of their national championships while others have more varied criteria, which may include success at certain international events or specific technical requirements. All of the selected skaters must have earned the minimum total element scores, which is determined and published each season by the ISU, during the current or immediately previous season. The number of competitors eligible to compete from ISU member nations is determined by the accumulation of points "equal to the sum of placements of their Competitors who were entered in this preceding season's Championships".
Age restrictions have changed throughout the history of the World Championships. Originally there were no any age restrictions at all. For example, Sonja Henie of Norway (three-time Olympic champion and ten-time World champion in women's singles) debuted at the World Championships in 1924 at the age of 11. Beginning with the 1996–97 season, skaters had to be at least 15 years old before July 1 of the previous year. However, there were some exceptions during a few following seasons. One exception allowed those who already had skated in senior events to stay at that level. For example, Tara Lipinski from the United States (the 1998 Olympic champion in women's singles who debuted at the World Championships in 1996 at the age of 13) was allowed to participate at the 1997 World Championships, where she won a gold medal at the age of 14. There was also an exception that skaters who had won medals at the World Junior Championships were eligible to compete as seniors at the ISU Championships. For example, Sarah Hughes from the United States (the 2002 Olympic champion in women's singles) won the silver medal at the 1999 World Junior Championships, and was thus allowed to participate at the 1999 World Championships at the age of 13.
At the ISU Congress held in June 2022, members of the ISU Council accepted a proposal to gradually increase the minimum age limit for senior competition to 17 years old beginning from the 2024–25 season. To avoid forcing skaters who had already competed in the senior category to return to juniors, the age limit remained unchanged during the 2022–23 season, before increasing to 16 during the 2023–24 season, and then to 17 during the 2024–25 season.