by Anne Calder | Photo by Melanie Heaney

The 2026 ISU Figure Skating World Championships were hosted by Prague, CZE for the third time since they were first introduced in St. Petersburg, Russia 130 years ago. The competition was held at the O2 Arena March 24-29. Thirty-one ice dance teams representing twenty-two countries competed in the Rhythm Dance.

RHYTHM DANCE

The 2026 Rhythm Dance was competed on Friday afternoon, March 27. Twenty teams qualified for the Saturday Free Dance. The couples skated their final routines to the 2025-2026 theme: “The Music, Dance Styles and Feelings of the 1990’s”.

Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron partnered in 2025 and are the recent Olympic gold medalists. The duo carried that momentum into first place with a Madonna medley that scored a personal best 92.74. Cizeron and previous partner are four time World, five time European and the 2022 Olympic gold medalists. The new partnership trains in Montreal, Quebec at I.AM.

Gilles & Poirier scored 86.45 for their dance to “Supermodel (You Better Work)” by RuPaul, and “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred. The team has competed at every World Championships since their first in 2013, one season after they partnered. Poirier also has three more with his previous partner. Carol Lane, Juris Razgulajevs and Jon Lane coach the duo at their training site in Scarborough, Ontario.

Fear & Gibson danced to a Spice Girls medley and scored 85.09 points. The reigning World bronze medalists and eight time British Ice Dance Champions train at I.AM in Montreal. Fear was born in Connecticut, USA to Canadian parents, raised in London, England and represents Great Britain.

Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik placed fourth in the Rhythm Dance at their World Championship debut. They are the 2026 US (silver) and Four Continents (gold) medalists. The team scored an international personal best 84.21 for the dance to selections by Bell Biv DeVoe. The team trains in Novi, MI with Igor Shpilband, Natalia Deller, Adrienne Lenda and Renee Petkovski.

Evgenia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) placed fifth and scored 83.07. Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck (ESP) were sixth with an 81.06 score. Both marks were personal bests. Both teams train in Montreal at I.AM.

Small medals were awarded to the teams with the highest Rhythm Dance scores: (gold) Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron; (silver) Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier; (bronze) Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson.

Rhythm Dance quotes

Saulius Ambrulevicius (LTU) (On the 90’s RD being over) “It’s a program we skated many times, and it’s still fun. The crowd likes it. It was a fun vehicle this year. We will have it in our memories in a good way.”

Lewis Gibson (GBR) (On saying goodby to the Spice Girls program) “It’s sad, but it feels like that every season, but then we have so much excitement building new programs.

Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) (On skating last in the RD) “We practiced this morning how it was to skate in the last last group. We created this season something special between us, so no matter what happens, we can reset and say it’s okay and know where we are going.

Marjory Lajoie (CAN) (On next year’s RD) “We never did the Waltz, so we need to try it before having an opinion. So we’ll see.

Michael Parsons (USA) (On the Golden Waltz for next season’s RD) “The new rule changes that are coming next season are going to benefit us a lot as a team. They will play to our strengths.”

Caroline Green “We have immense ballroom and ballet training throughout our careers, so we we’ll use this skill set more.”     

Philip Taschler (CZE) (feelings after skating the RD at home) “It was a bit challenging, but once we started to go with the music, we just felt love. I’m like wow! The energy was amazing. I enjoyed it so much.”

Matthias Versluils (FIN) (to be able to skate) “I’ve been struggling with my back, so we’re very happy that we could put out this performance today and skate as well as that.”

Marie-Jade Lauriault (CAN) (On the new RD changes for next season) “We will reflect on it, and if there is a way to keep things fun. People want to see skaters having fun on the ice. I think this is what we should keep in the Rhythm Dance, Waltz, Samba or whatever the dance is.”

Daniel Mrazek (CZE) (On skating at World Championships at home) “I have to say no audience has cheered us on like that ever before. We are very grateful for that.

Shira Ichilov (ISR) (On Nosovitskly being her 5th partner) “He is the best partner I ever had. I had partners that were great skaters. None was so hungry for skating and willing to work so hard.”

Milla Ruud Reitan (SWE) (On being the first Swedish ice dancers to qualify for the Olympics) “It was so amazing. there. It’s different from anything else we’ve experienced. It’s been awesome.”

Danijil Szemko (HUN) (On next season’s RD) “Something needed to be changed. Everyone is tired of the Rhythm Dance theme which is similar to the one we had previous years. Skaters will look for personality and their own style in this new theme. I think it will be more interesting than what we have now. “

FREE DANCE

The Free Dance closed the curtain on the 2026 World Championship competitions.  The recent three-time gold medalists opted not to defend their title, so the discipline crowned a new Champion. The supportive audience enthusiastically waved signs and flags as each group was introduced to loud applause. The two CZE teams received a huge home-crowd reception. Juulia Turkkila & Matthias Versluis (FIN) withdrew due to injury.

At the awards ceremony medals and mini stuffed replicas of the official mascot, Eda the Hedgehog were given to the medalists. This included:(gold) Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron (silver) Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier and (bronze) Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik.

Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron danced a light and airy performance to the The Whale movie soundtrack. The duo earned perfect 10 presentation scores from all nine judges and 80/81 grade of executions of +4 or +5. The program earned 138.07 points with a total 230.81 score. Both are personal bests.

“We had a really good time tonight,” said Cizeron. “It was a magical moment. We felt the energy of the crowd. It was a really warm welcome, and it felt like a celebration of a long and beautiful season for us, so we’re just grateful.”

Gilles & Poirier returned to the Wuthering Heights soundtrack they had performed in Montreal at the 2024 World Championship. The program skated before a home audience had earned a still current personal best 133.17 score and a Free Dance small gold medal. In Prague, it earned 125.07 points and third place. The Canadians were second overall with a total 211.52 score.

“Today, the Free Dance, as we expected, was going to be a challenge for us, and it felt a little bit like that,” said Gilles. “But we were ready for it, and we skated a program that we truly enjoy. I think the audience really love it as well, so we created a moment that we wanted. We are proud of that and grateful to be here.”

Zingas & Kolesnik were mesmerizing in their performance to the “Dance of the Knights” and “Juliet’s Death” from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet. The team’s expressions and body movement throughout while performing the elements added to their interpretation. The dramatic ending of two faceless bodies finalized the theme. The program scored 124.99. The total 209.20 earned the Americans the bronze medal at their first World Championships. All their scores were personal bests.

(On winning a medal) I think my brain is still processing what’s happening. All I can say is that I’m just so full of joy,” said Kolesnik. “It’s a miracle on ice for us. I would like to dedicate this medal to my parents. They always believed in me and supported me on this journey. Actually my dad is here [from Ukraine]. I haven’t seen him in five years. So I’m extremely excited. I just want that war stops and peace comes hopefully soon.”

Lilah Fear & Louis Gibson were fourth with a crowd-pleasing dance to a medley of Scottish songs. The costumes were traditional-themed tartan plaid designs to honor Gibson’s heritage. The technical panel called an illegal element/movement on the team’s combination lift, which is an automatic -2 deduction. The stationary section was called a level 3 and Gibson’s twizzles were level 2.  The result was a disappointing fifth place 123.89 program score and a fourth place 208.98 total.

Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck earned a Free Dance second place 125.31 score for their dance to a “Dune Part II” soundtrack medley. The audience loudly cheered their appreciation with a thunderous standing ovation. The personal scores totaled 206.37.

“I am very overwhelmed,” said Smart. “We both feel so complete, super proud. Mentally that was so challenging today, but we did it. The crowd was absolutely bloody amazing. It just made me cry seeing them standing on their feet for a team from Spain. I am so proud, and I know Tim is too.”

Lopareva & Brissaud skated to “All is Full of Love” and “Bachelorette” by Bjork. Karl Hugo’s song, “All Around Us”, was added in between Bjork’s music. The program scored 120.70 and totaled 203.77.

“We felt pretty good on the ice. We made some small mistakes, and it costs a lot when you are in the last group at Worlds, but we are happy – and tired,” said Brissaud. “It was a very good season for us with a lot of important steps and competitions,” added Lopareva. “We learned a lot of things like how to manage the stress, how to be be in our own bubble. Many important lessons learned.”

Small medals were awarded to the teams with the highest Free Dance scores: (gold) Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron; (silver) Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck; (bronze) Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier.

Free Dance quotes

Gleb Smolkin (GEO) (On the audience)“We are happy we had the best skates of the season. The audience was great and pushed us. It made use want to give all we had on the ice. (On next season) We have some ideas. We have not won anything yet, so we are staying for more.”

Anthony Ponomarenko (USA) (On lessons learned this season) “Perseverance. We pushed through and went through ups and downs, looking forward and giving our best every single day. There are a lot of good lessons learned this year.”

Katerina Mrazkova (CZE) (On the skate at home) “We are so excited for the audience that was supporting us. It was amazing. We are so happy to experience such a big competition at home in Prague. We were aware that media pressure can be quite high and tried not to think about it and just do our job.”

Benjamin Steffan (GER) (On future plans) “We are having a break now, and we are happy to put our skates aside for a while before putting them on again. We will definitely start to prepare for the next season.”

Paul Poirier (CAN) (On the 20 point gap between them and 1st place) “We always come to competitions keeping in mind that the only thing we can do is to skate our best. We don’t have control over the scoring and judging. We can’t put our sense of accomplishment or about how we feel we skated. It is in the judges hands – we can only assess how we skate, and how we feel we did. That’s what we have to takewith us.”

Vadym Kolesnik (USA) (same question about the 20 point gap) “Two years ago we had a gap of 20 points with Piper and Paul. It’s not that much now. We’re catching up. We’ll see what happens next year.”

Piper Gilles (CAN) (On their long career) “As we reflect on our whole career, I wouldn’t change it. It allowed us to create many memorable programs that so many people, even our fans forgot we already did. I think that’s so unique. To be here at our 13th World Championships is a blessing, and we don’t take that for granted. It’s been an honor to be able to celebrate our art with the fans that love us so much.”