Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn chase figure skating world titles after Olympic disappointment

Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn stood out for how they handled their Olympic disappointment. Now they get a chance at a different gold medal.

The world figure skating championships in Prague from Wednesday offer a chance for Malinin and Glenn to end the season on a high and bring back the kind of dominance they showed when winning U.S. national titles two months ago.

“Now I just want to enjoy it,” Glenn said after practice on Tuesday.

Malinin and Glenn have had over a month to digest what happened at the Milan Cortina Olympics, where both won team gold for the U.S. but missed the individual medals after costly errors.

Malinin landed his trademark backflip but not enough of his high-scoring quadruple jumps. He won the Games' fair play award for celebrating Mikhail Shaidorov's victory despite his own disappointment. Glenn was a runner-up for shooing away cameras as silver medalist Kaori Sakamoto wept rinkside.

Olympic gold medalists Alysa Liu and Shaidorov won't be in Prague as they deal with the media attention that comes with being the champ, but there are strong challengers from Japan waiting if Malinin and Glenn slip up again.

Malinin's moment, again

The “quad god,” the one man dreaming of a never-before-seen quintuple jump, seemed like a sure thing for men's gold in Milan. Malinin's falls and errors in the free skate brought about one of the most dramatic collapses in any Olympic sport in history.

After being as shocked as anyone else by how the nerves and the pressure “overwhelmed” him, some skaters might have skipped the worlds to rebuild away from the spotlight. Malinin's journey back to the top and a potential Olympic return in 2030 starts now in Prague.

He's the skater to beat again this week and if Malinin can land his quad-heavy program clean, he could win by the sort of huge margin he used to rack up in pre-Olympic events.

His closest rivals in Prague are likely to be the two Japanese skaters who came closest to Shaidorov in Milan, Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato.

Glenn returns and Sakamoto leaves

Glenn's free skate in Milan was podium-quality but her chances of a medal had already suffered from a costly missed jump in the short program.

Glenn has yet to translate the commanding form which has won her three consecutive U.S. titles to the biggest international stages, and is seeking what would be her first world medal. Isabeau Levito was a world silver medalist in 2024 for the U.S. but needs to recover from placing 12th in Milan.

Sakamoto is aiming to win a fourth world title in what's expected to be her last competition before retirement, but she'll face strong opposition from her Japan teammates Ami Nakai and Mone Chiba. A podium sweep is a possibility after Sakamoto, Nakai and Chiba placed second, third and fourth behind Liu at the Olympics.

Adeliia Petrosian, the only skater to attempt a quad jump in the Olympic women's event last month, isn't competing. The neutral status which allowed her to compete in Milan as a Russian wasn't extended to cover the worlds.

Controversial dance champions

France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron are the only Olympic champions returning for the worlds. Their Olympic win against Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates sparked a furore over judging, especially given one glaring error from Cizeron.

The only team to beat the French this season, Chock and Bates, withdrew from the worlds with Bates saying their season “feels complete” after the Olympics. They may be heading for retirement. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain could contend for the medals.

In pairs, new Olympic champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara withdrew from the worlds, setting up a fight for gold between Olympic silver medalists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia and the bronze-winning pair of Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin from Germany.

U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov are skating at the worlds after missing the Olympics because Efimova wasn't a U.S. citizen.

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