BOSTON — The third day of the 2025 world figure skating championships at TD Garden proved to be a historic one for Team USA.
Nearly three years after retiring from competitive figure skating, Alysa Liu won a stunning world title in women’s singles Friday, the first for the United States in the event since 2006. She even surpassed the three-time defending world champion, Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, to do it.
Liu won both the short program and free skate en route to an overall score of 222.97. Sakamoto finished second, while her compatriot Mone Chiba took third. Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn of the U.S. finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Earlier Friday, TD Garden also hosted the start of the ice dance competition. Reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States are in the lead after the rhythm dance portion of the event, more than three points clear of the Canadian team of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. The Americans are in strong position to defend their crown Saturday afternoon.
Here’s everything else you need to know from Day 3 of the world figure skating championships:
Amber Glenn just shy of podium after captivating free skate
Two-time defending national champion Amber Glenn was sitting in ninth place entering the free skate, in large part because of the fall on the triple axel in her short program. But she will likely finish much higher than that after her free skate.
Glenn just hung onto the triple axel on her first jumping pass and fought through a few other minor errors to notch a score of 138.00 in the free skate, which moved her into medal contention ahead of the final group of the night. She was briefly in the lead before three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan took the ice.
Her total score of 205.65 would’ve been good enough for bronze at last year’s world championships, but she will end up just missing the podium this time around.
Everyone’s skating to Hans Zimmer
And now, for the sort of hard-hitting analysis that nobody might care about except for the author of this blog: It feels like a large chunk of skaters at worlds are competing to Hans Zimmer. And his Dune soundtrack, in particular.
So I did some mild research, and the numbers back it up. Six different skaters or teams are competing to Dune at worlds. And, in total, a whopping 18 different skaters or teams went with some sort of music by Zimmer, the legendary film composer.
A special mention here to Kimmy Repond of Canada, who skated to Zimmer in both her short program and free skate.
Madison Chock, Evan Bates wow in rhythm dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates started off their world championships title defense with a bang, eclipsing the 90-point mark with their rhythm dance en route to a place atop the leaderboard.
Chock and Bates, who have indicated that next season will be their last, entered this year’s worlds as the favorites and proved why Friday against a compilation of music that ran through multiple decades. Their score of 90.18 was more than three points higher than that of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, their main rivals from Canada.
‘I would say that’s probably one of the best [times] that we’ve performed that program,’ Chock said.
The theme for the rhythm dance portion of ice dance is set every season, giving each team a genre or specified parameters within which to work. Bates said they took this year’s guidelines to heart and went to great lengths to weave actual dance moves and patterns into their program.
‘The theme this year was 50s, 60s, 70s. But the important part was it was social dance,’ Bates said. ‘So we really studied a lot, at the beginning of the year, all of the social dances from all the decades and tried to incorporate as much as we could.’
The ice dance competition will conclude with the free dance Saturday afternoon.
American, Canadian teams fill top of ice dance leaderboard
Chock and Bates weren’t the only American ice dancers to have a strong showing at TD Garden.
The first American team to take the ice, Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, had one of their best performances of the season en route to a score of 77.51. Then, moments later, their compatriots Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko scored even higher: 81.51. Both teams said their performances were among the best of the year.
‘This is a very demanding program, so I feel like it’s been a climb up stairs,’ Ponomarenko said. ‘And we finally are reaching that point in our cardio where we can do it and give energy. So it’s been a climb up, for sure.’
The Americans and Canadians have long dominated ice dance, and these world championships are no differnet. Teams from North America occupy five of the top seven spots on the leaderboard entering Saturday’s free dance.
Alysa Liu’s unique path to cusp of history
Alysa Liu was something of an American figure skating prodigy. She became the youngest American woman to win a national title in 2019, when she was just 13 years old. And at 16, she represented Team USA at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where she finished sixth.
A few months later, though, Liu announced that she was retiring from figure skating − news that sent shockwaves throughout the U.S. figure skating community. She spent about two years away from the sport before unretiring last year.
Now, in her first season back in competition, she has a world medal − and perhaps championship − in sight.
‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t decide to retire for a little bit,’ Liu said Wednesday. ‘I just am glad that I listen to myself and just do whatever, because it just works out in the end.’
When do the U.S. figure skaters compete tonight?
Here’s a rundown of when the American women will be on the ice tonight.
9:44 p.m. ET: Alysa Liu, women’s free skate
Isabeau Levito is back healthy, in contention for world medal
Isabeau Levito, the reigning world silver medalist, is not just back in the mix for a medal at the world championships but also back from injury. A bone injury in her foot kept her sidelined for roughly three months.
“Yeah, it was frustrating to just sit at home and do nothing,” Levito said Tuesday. “But it gave me a new perspective, and I take all of this for granted less. I feel much more grateful for what I do have and being able to skate every day and being able to jump.”Levito returned to competition for an Olympic test event last month but missed nationals. U.S. Figure Skating essentially gave her a bye to compete at worlds, based on past performance and pending her physical readiness. She finished third in the short program.
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.
Who are the NBC commentators for figure skating?
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.
Who are the favorites in ice dance?
It may not be the Four Nations hockey final, but ice dance has its own exciting Canada-U.S. rivalry.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. are the reigning world champions, but they’ve been going back and forth with the Canadian team of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier for years − more than a decade, in fact. Together, the two teams have racked up eight world medals since 2011, the first year that they competed as teams.
Chock and Bates are probably the preliminary favorites, especially with the home crowd behind them. But this one could go either way. And it’s entirely possible that a third team − likely Italy’s Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri − could crash the proverbial party, too.
When does Ilia Malinin compete next at the 2025 world figure skating championships?
Ilia Malinin, the 20-year-old defending world champion from Reston, Virginia, is sitting atop the leaderboard in the men’s competition after an outstanding short program Thursday. He will next take the ice in the free skate Saturday night, likely around 9:45 p.m. ET. That portion of the session will be televised on NBC.
World figure skating championships 2025 TV schedule
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.
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.)
World figure skating championships standings, results
Here are the standings in each discipline, as of Friday afternoon.
Ice dance (after rhythm dance)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, USA: 90.18
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, Canada: 86.44
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, Great Britain: 83.86
Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri, Italy: 83.04
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, Canada: 81.77
Women’s singles (final)
Alysa Liu, USA: 222.97
Kaori Sakamoto, Japan: 217.98
Mone Chiba, Japan: 215.24
Isabeau Levito, USA: 209.84
Amber Glenn, USA: 205.65
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 (final)
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan: 219.79
Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, Italy: 210.47
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, Germany: 219.08
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luke Berulava, Georgia: 202.21
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Canada: 199.76