The 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships get underway on Wednesday in Boston as the sport’s best look to make their mark with less than a year to go before the Milano Cortina Olympic Games.

In addition to collecting some shiny new hardware, skaters will also be aiming to earn Olympic quota places for their respective countries during the competition — 24 spots are up for grabs in the men’s and women’s singles events, 16 in pairs and 19 in ice dance.

And it could be a very exciting week for the Americans. The contingent is legitimately in contention to claim three of the four world titles — something that has never happened before. (It’s worth noting, the often-dominant Russians remain barred from competition due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.)

Haven’t watched figure skating since the 2022 Games? Or just need a quick refresher? We’ve got you covered. Here are the skaters and storylines you’ll want to know.

Heavy hearts

A tribute will be held on Wednesday night ahead of the pairs short program to remember the victims of the American Airlines plane crash, in which 28 people associated with the figure skating community were killed on their way home from the national championships in January. Among those who lost their lives were skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, Han’s mother Jin Hee Han and Lane’s mother Christine Lane, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, from the Skating Club of Boston, the host of the championships.

Many of the skaters in this week’s competition knew and trained alongside some of the victims and they will undoubtedly be on everyone’s minds throughout.

“[I] really just have this mindset of skating for them now,” reigning world champion Ilia Malinin told reporters last week about those from his Washington Figure Skating Club who were on the plane. “I’ll always have them in my head and in my heart, just remembering them, and this worlds [performance], I really want to dedicate to everyone on that flight. [I want to] just really give my all in that performance and really just make it worth it for them.”

In a separate news conference, Evan Bates, the two-time defending ice dancing world champion with Madison Chock, said, “I think everybody’s looking forward to having something to cheer for.”

Malinin’s dominance

Just how good is Malinin, the 2024 world champion? The 20-year-old American hasn’t lost a competition since 2023 and carries an eight-event win streak to Boston. And it’s not just that he keeps winning, it’s how he does it.

During his 2024 showing at worlds, Malinin became the first man in history to land six clean quadruple jumps in one program. And since then, he’s only tried to push himself further by incorporating a previously banned backflip and adding yet another quadruple jump to his routine. He clinched his third straight national title in January.

Ilia Malinin isn’t backing down from a challenge.

He tied the record for most landed quadruple jumps, landing six of his attempted seven, en route to his third straight U.S. figure skating title. pic.twitter.com/VUzH7uetj1

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) January 27, 2025

While he has yet to complete all seven in one performance, that has hardly slowed him down, and he remains the only man to have ever successfully landed a quadruple axel cleanly in competition. During his run at nationals, he landed the quad axel and his signature aerial twist (nicknamed the “raspberry twist”), earning a massive free skate score of 219.23 for an overall score of 331.31. This gave him more than a 44-point margin of victory over second-place finisher Andrew Torgashev.

Of course, winning his second consecutive world title won’t be as easy, although he is the heavy favorite. Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who took home silver last year, will look to rebound after a shaky showing at the Asian Winter Games, and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, the last man to beat Malinin in 2023, won bronze last year and will be looking to get his up-and-down season back on track. But ultimately, this is Malinin’s title to win — and he knows it.

When asked last week if he considered Kagiyama a “rival,” he didn’t hesitate.

“Not necessarily,” he said. “I would consider myself to be my biggest rival. I mean for me, my whole motto is, I always like to compete against myself and to really just push my own limit.”

As for the women …

While Malinin is the clear favorite for the men’s title, there is considerably more intrigue in the women’s competition.

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto is the three-time defending champion and hopes to become the first woman in over 60 years to win four in a row. But she has struggled as of late, finishing third at the ISU Grand Prix Final in December and then ending up in second place at the Asian Winter Games last month behind a near-disastrous free skate. Will she be able to rediscover her form and her confidence in time for Boston?

If she’s not at 100%, there are several others looking to pounce. South Korea’s Kim Chae-yeon, who defeated Kaori at the Asian Games and was the world bronze medalist in 2024, is capable of winning yet again. The 18-year-old earned a career-best score in the free skate to clinch the Four Continents trophy in her native Seoul just over a month ago.

And a trio of Americans could contend in front of a passionate home crowd. Amber Glenn, 25, brings an undefeated record this season. The two-time reigning national champion won at the Grand Prix Final in December — the biggest title for an American woman since 2010 — and seems to be peaking at the right time. Isabeau Levito, 18, captured silver at worlds last season. She missed nationals with a foot injury but was able to petition onto the team and made her return to competition last month. Nineteen-year-old Alysa Liu, a 2022 Olympian, came back in 2024 after a two-year retirement and has since finished in second place at U.S. nationals and in fourth place at last month’s Four Continents.

GLENN IS GOLDEN 🥇

At Grand Prix France, reigning U.S. champion Amber Glenn secures her first-ever Grand Prix title! #GPFigure pic.twitter.com/imbwJ65Vbx

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) November 2, 2024

Dance party

Five-time world medalists Chock and Bates are in search of their third straight world championship title — and would become the first duo to do so since Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov claimed four in a row from 1994-1997. While Chock and Bates haven’t formally announced retirement plans, the recently married pair — who just won their sixth national title — have called the upcoming year leading into the Olympic Games as their “last shot” and have their eyes on gold in both Boston and in Italy next winter.

Three-peat loading! ⏳

Madison Chock and Evan Bates reminisce ahead of #WorldFigure next week!

How to watch ➡️: https://t.co/z7jqy4nmxH pic.twitter.com/8lsh0YgYob

— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) March 19, 2025

It could be a close competition. Chock, 32, and Bates, 36, were bested by Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at the Four Continents event this year by a fraction of a point. The Canadian duo were the runners-up at the 2024 world championships and have twice placed on the podium before but have never won gold. Will this be their year?

Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, the most experienced team in the field, finished in third place in 2024 and in second place in 2023. Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko finished in seventh place last year and finished just off the podium at the Four Continents.

More history for Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps?

While there are two American teams competing in the pairs competition — Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea — both are considered outside contenders to make the podium and likely won’t factor into the championship conversation. So, while that might not be quite as fun for the Boston crowd as the other three events, this still could be a battle to remember between some accomplished duos.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek, now 41, became the oldest women’s world champion in the sport’s history in 2024 when she and Maxime Deschamps claimed gold last year. Their season has been somewhat derailed with injuries and illness, but they nabbed the Canadian national title in January and recorded a runner-up finish at the Four Continents. They now have their eyes on winning yet another world title — and qualifying for their first Olympics together after Stellato-Dudek officially became a Canadian citizen in December.

While Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps have struggled at times this season, Germany’s Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin and Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara have stepped up. Hase and Volodin won the Grand Prix Final and Miura and Kihara, the 2023 world champions, claimed the podium’s top spot at the Four Continents. So, who will come out on top in Boston? Stay tuned.