BOSTON — The booming applause for Ilia Malinin started nearly 15 seconds before the end of his short program Thursday at the 2025 world figure skating championships.
Not since he first landed a quadruple axel in competition had he heard that sort of roar during his performance, as opposed to after.
‘I was not expecting them to cheer me on halfway through my step sequence,’ Malinin said. ‘But it was definitely an uplifting experience.’
And it was, without question, deserved. Despite the unspoken weight of being the headliner at a home world championships, the 20-year-old defending world champion turned in one of the best short programs of his senior career Thursday at TD Garden in Boston. His jumps − including two quads − were clean, his choreography energetic and crisp. And an incredible personal best score of 110.41 followed.
Malinin, unsurprisingly, will enter Saturday night’s free skate atop the leaderboard. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan is sitting in second place, about three points behind Malinin.
‘It’s not just his jumps but I feel like his skating and his artistry, his expression is getting better year by year,’ Kagiyama said in a news conference. ‘So I’m starting to think he’s invincible.’
Malinin’s performance preceded the second half of pairs competition later Thursday night. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan won the first world title of the week with a beautiful free skate, followed by Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany in second and Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii in third.
The American teams of Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea finished sixth and seventh, respectively.
Friday will bring the start of ice dance and the finale in women’s singles, where the U.S. has two skaters in podium contention. Alysa Liu is sitting in first place and Isabeau Levito is in third.
Here’s everything you might have missed from Day 2 of the world figure skating championships:
Ilia Malinin near perfect in short program to take lead
Before every program at worlds, a message from the skater(s) flashes on the jumbotron at TD Garden. Malinin’s message: ‘Let’s get this party started.’ And get it started he did.
Malinin turned in a nearly flawless short program, nailing all of his jumping elements en route to a massive score of 110.41. He leads by a little more than three points after the short program, with Yuma Kagiyama of Japan the only skater in the same ballpark. His short program score was 107.09. Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan is a distant third at 94.77.
‘Actually stepping on the ice, I felt more nervous than usual. And I didn’t understand why. I was like, ‘OK, this is interesting,’ ‘ Malinin said. ‘But once the music started playing and I got into a starting position, I almost fell into that flow state. And it really just took me from there.’
World figure skating championships standings, results
Here are the standings in each discipline, as of Thursday evening.
Women’s singles (after short program)
Alysa Liu, USA: 74.58
Mone Chiba, Japan: 73.44
Isabeau Levito, USA: 73.33
Wakaba Higuchi, Japan: 72.10
Kaori Sakamoto, Japan: 71.03
Men’s singles (after short program)
Ilia Malinin, USA: 110.41
Yuma Kagiyama, Japan: 107.09
Mikhail Shaidorov, Kazakhstan: 94.77
Kevin Aymoz, France: 93.63
Shun Sato, Japan: 91.26
Pairs (after short program)
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan: 76.57
Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, Italy: 74.61
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, Germany: 73.59
Anastasiia Metelkina, Luke Berulava, Georgia: 71.68
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, USA: 68.61
Ice dance
Begins Friday
ISU issues apology after flag mistake involving Taiwan, Chinese Taipei
The International Skating Union apologized Thursday for displaying the flag of Taiwan, rather than the emblem of Chinese Taipei.
The Taiwanese flag, which features a white sun against the blue corner of a red backdrop, flashed on the video screen behind skater Yu-Hsiang Li when he was introduced ahead of his short program Thursday afternoon. Read more about the flags and the apology from the ISU.
Efimova, Mitrofanov dazzle in free skate on home ice
While all of the American athletes at this week’s world championships are competing on home ice, that is especially true for Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who train at the nearby Skating Club of Boston.
That no doubt contributed to their reaction Thursday night after a superb free skate, when they pumped their fists and screamed in excitement. As Efimova buried her head in her hands with emotion, Mitrofanov turned her toward the crowd, as a reminder to take it all in.
‘I forgot about the crowd, totally,’ Efimova said. ‘This happened also at nationals, and afterwards I told Misha how I didn’t really see it. I did not understand what was going on. This time, he turned me around as if to say ‘watch!’ And I was like, ‘oh right, there’s a crowd, wow.’ ‘
In a touching moment, Efimova and Mitrofanov also held up photos of Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, the two Boston-based teenage skaters who died in the Jan. 29 plane crash near Washington, in the kiss-and-cry while awaiting their score.
Their free skate score of 135.59 vaulted them into sixth. They finished narrowly ahead of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, who finished seventh. Their combined scores assured that Team USA will have two pairs teams at the 2026 Olympics, with a chance to add a third at a qualifying event in Beijing this fall.
What do the world championships mean for Olympic qualifying?
To put it briefly: It’s significant.
Without going into all of the nuances of the International Skating Union’s quota allocation system, how it basically works is that skaters here will earn Olympic spots for their countries. And those countries will then decide who gets to fill those spots at the end of this year or early in 2026. A total of 83 quota spots are at stake across the four disciplines.
Andrew Torgashev in the mix after strong showing
The first American to take the ice in the men’s short program was also the first to temporarily move atop the leaderboard.
Andrew Torgashev, who finished second to Ilia Malinin at the most recent U.S. championships, barely hung on to his quadruple toe loop on his first jumping pass but then turned in a terrific, energetic performance to move briefly into the lead with a score of 87.27. His intricate, fast-paced step sequence prompted roars from the crowd.
‘My entire goal for this competition, and for any competition, is just to feel fulfilled after it − to make all of those runthroughs, all that soreness and sweat and tears all worth it,’ he said afterwards. ‘This short today was worth it.’
Torgashev, 23, previously represented Team USA at the 2023 world championships, where he finished 21st. He said he felt much more confident and comfortable when he took the ice Thursday.
Jason Brown puts boot issue behind him
Two-time Olympian Jason Brown raised a few eyebrows when he withdrew from nationals in January citing ‘a series of challenges adjusting to an equipment change.’ He has since revealed that the problem stemmed from his skates − the old ones that started giving him pain, and his search in vain to find new ones that would work.
‘Unfortunately, or fortunately, we figured out the boot issue. But it took all season to do so,’ Brown said. ‘So I really struggled throughout the season with that.’
With the boot issue behind him, Brown is back in Boston, where his 2014 Riverdance-themed program helped put him on the skating map. And despite a few minor hiccups in his short program Thursday, he turned in a solid score of 84.72. He was second behind Torgashev at the end of their group.
‘I’m proud of the fight that I’ve had this season,’ he said. ‘Every single time I felt like I got knocked down, me and my coaches and (my) sports psych and my family rallied and we were like ‘no, we’re going to keep pushing, we’re going to figure this out.”
How to watch world figure skating championships
Here is the complete schedule for the 2025 world figure skating championships, with channel and television coverage start times in parentheses. The entirety of all sessions will be available on Peacock.
Friday, 11:15 a.m. to 4:54 p.m. ET: Rhythm dance (USA Network, 3 p.m.)
Friday, 6 p.m. to 9:52 p.m. ET: Women’s free skate (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. ET: Free dance (USA Network, 3 p.m.)
Saturday, 6 p.m. to 9:52 p.m. ET: Men’s free skate (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Who are the favorites in men’s singles?
Ilia Malinin appears to be in a class of his own. At last year’s world championships, he won by a commanding 24 points. And this year, he became the first skater to land six quadruple jumps in the same program − and the first to attempt seven.
Given the scoring dynamics of figure skating, Malinin’s maximum score − what he’s capable of doing − will give him a built-in cushion. And it’d be surprising, bordering on stunning, to see him not repeat as world champ.
The man who has been closest to Malinin is Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who finished second both at last year’s worlds and the more recent Grand Prix final. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa and Japan’s Shun Sato are among the other top contenders for podium spots.
Who’s on the call for world figure skating championships?
The portions of the world figure skating championships that are televised on NBC or USA Network will have many of the usual broadcasting voices.
Terry Gannon will once again handle play-by-play duties, with Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir offering color commentary. The telecasts will also feature Gabriella Papadakis, a 2022 Olympic gold medalist, as an ice dance analyst, with Andrea Joyce and Adam Rippon as reporters.