by Matteo Morelli

The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2025 is taking place in Debrecen, Hungary, from February 25 to March 2. This is the fourth time that the event returns to Hungary and the second in Debrecen, which last welcomed Junior Worlds in 2016.

This year’s ice dance competition will see 25 teams representing 19 countries, with the reigning gold (USA’s Leah Neset & Artem Markelov) and silver (Israel’s Elizabeth Tkachenko & Alexei Kiliakov) medallists no longer in contention as they moved up to senior.

The Medal Hunt

In their second year together, Italy’s Noemi Maria Tali & Noah Lafornara are enjoying a fantastic season full of successes, including winning the Junior Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, which they accessed as the only team to have won both Junior Grand Prix assignments. 

With this being their last year as a junior team, they shared that they are already working on finessing their skills to get ready to move up to the senior field, which they will join during the season of the Olympic Games being held in Italy (Milano Cortina). The two-time junior national Champions will do everything to be the team to beat at the event, trying to make history for Italy which has not yet won a gold medal in the ice dance.

Katarina Wolfkostin & Dimitry Tsarevski of the USA are the silver medallists from the Junior Grand Prix Final. This season, they competed at senior US Nationals, ending in seventh place. They will be joined by another two teams from the USA: Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen, and Hana Maria Aboian & Daniil Veseluhkin.

Darya Grimm & Michail Savitskiy of Germany won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final, and reconfirmed themselves as junior national champions for a fourth consecutive year. This season, the reigning bronze medallists from last year’s Junior Worlds decided to change coaches, relocating under Matteo Zanni and Maurizio Margaglio schools.

Ukraine’s Iryna Pidgaina & Artem Koval are also enjoying a season of successes and strong performances, including accessing their first Junior Grand Prix Final, where they ended just outside of the podium.

Celina Fradji & Jean-Hans Fourneaux of France also competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final, their third. They will enter their fourth Junior Worlds, after finishing in fourth place at last year’s event.

Event info: Teams have official practices from Tuesday, February 25. The rhythm dance kicks off on Wednesday, February 26, at 17:45pm (CET); the free dance occurs on Thursday, February 27, at 18:45pm (CET).