by Matteo Morelli

The ISU Figure Skating Junior World Championships 2026 took place in Tallinn, Estonia, at the famous Tondiraba Ice Hall. This was the fourth time that Junior Worlds was held in Estonia, with the most recent edition being in 2022.

After just one point separating the top three, the free dance confirmed the gold medal for the USA’s Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukin, followed by France’s Ambre Perrier Gianesini and Samuel Blanc Klaperman in the silver medal position, and Ukraine’s Iryna Pidgaina and Artem Koval taking bronze, repeating the final result of the Junior Grand Prix Final.

Interesting fact: Team USA has been on the podium in all four Junior World Championships held in Tallinn, winning three editions (Oona Brown and Gage Brown in 2022, Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik in 2020, and this year). In the first edition, in 2015, the USA won silver (with Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter), while Ukraine took bronze (with Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin).

Event recap

Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukin were the favourites to win the event and they did not disappoint. They led in both segments, earning 66.45 for their rhythm dance, 100.26 for their free dance, and a total score of 166.71 points.

“I feel very proud of our performances,” Aboian said. “We delivered exactly what we wanted, and I am proud that we were able to do what we have been working on since the Junior Grand Prix Final and since Nationals.”

“I am also really happy and excited about everything we have done and how far we have come over these two seasons. Nobody could have imagined that two years later we would be Junior World Champions, and it feels truly amazing,” Veselukin added.

This season, they were undefeated in all the major international events they competed in, showing the effort they put in to grow from last season’s seventh place at Junior Worlds.

“We really focus on training, making sure that every day is another step forward and that we continue growing from one competition to another,” Aboian explained. “While we are still juniors, we can develop every programme and develop ourselves to prepare for the senior stage.”

France’s Ambre Perrier Gianesini and Samuel Blanc Klaperman won the silver medal, making a huge improvement from their tenth-place finish at last year’s Junior Worlds. This year, they achieved new personal bests across the board: their rhythm dance ranked second with 66.31 points, and their free dance was third with 98.57 points, for a combined total of 164.88.

“It was maybe not the best performance we could give, but it was an opportunity to be here, and I am really proud of myself and of us that we finished second,” Perrier Gianesini said. “Even if I wanted the gold, sometimes you have to take a step back and reflect.”

“To be in this group of people now who win medals and are friends, even if it is not exactly what we were hoping for, it is still really good,” she later added.

Historically, French teams who won silver at Junior Worlds often went on to achieve remarkable senior careers, including for example Olympic Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.

“That is true, the French teams who made the Junior podium were amazing later at the senior level, so that already means something,” Klaperman said.

“We are following in the footsteps of the best,” Perrier Gianesini added.

Ukraine’s Iryna Pidgaina and Artem Koval redeemed themselves after finishing just off the podium last year. They posted the third best rhythm dance with 65.45 points, the second-best free dance with 98.87, and a total of 164.32, just half a point shy of silver but still earning the medal they had aimed for.

“Of course, we are happy about our performance because we did everything we could to prepare,” Koval shared. “We are so happy about this medal because we repeated what our choreographers, Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin, did in 2015 in the same place, and that makes us very proud.”

When the final scores came out, Pidgaina could not hold back tears in the kiss and cry.

“The whole season was very hard, and it is still a little bit hard for me to talk about it,” Pidgaina confessed. “I still cannot believe that we achieved this, because at some point I thought we would either finish our skating career or skip the season completely. I think today and yesterday we did our best.”

Both skaters are now looking forward to their senior debut next season.

“We are preparing for the senior level and we already have some ideas,” Koval said. “And of course, the Golden Waltz will be very fun, but I have seen some of the steps, and it is so hard!”.

Canada’s Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys finished just off the podium, followed by Dania Mouaden and Théo Bigot of France.

Two Italian teams, Arianna Soldati and Nicholas Tagliabue and Zoe Bianchi and Daniel Basile, placed sixth and seventh.

Rounding out the top ten were Germany’s Alexia Kruk and Jan Eisenhaber in eighth, Diane Sznajder and Jáchym Novák of the Czech Republic in ninth, and Austria’s Anita Straub and Andreas Straub in tenth.