Kaori Sakamoto leads figure skating worlds after short program; Americans in medal contention
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan topped the short program as she seeks a fourth title at the World Figure Skating Championships in the last competition of her career.
Sakamoto, the Olympic singles bronze medalist in 2022 and silver medalist last month, tallied 79.31 points, the world’s top score in this Olympic cycle. She hit a triple Lutz, double Axel and triple flip-triple toe loop combination in her “Time to Say Goodbye” short program.
Sakamoto leads by .86 of a point over countrywoman Mone Chiba going into Friday’s free skate in Prague, Czechia.
Americans Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito are in third and fourth, 6.66 and 7.15 points back, respectively.
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Levito sparkles in clean short program at worlds
Isabeau Levito skated to a short program score of 72.16 points at the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechia, slotting her in 4th and firmly in medal contention ahead of the free skate.
Sakamoto, who announced before this season that it will be her last, can become the first woman to capture four world singles titles since American Michelle Kwan took five between 1996 and 2003.
Sakamoto won three consecutive world titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before American Alysa Liu snapped the streak in 2025. Liu, who isn’t competing at these worlds, edged Sakamoto again at the Milan Cortina Olympics, taking gold by 1.89 points.
“I had a lot of expectation on myself at the Milan Olympics, and a lot of people around me had a lot of expectations,” Sakamoto said through a translator. “So not being able to meet those expectations was very, very sad for me. … This time, I’m really focusing on being able to leave it all out there and end these world championships with absolutely no regrets.”
Amber Glenn eyes first world championships medal
Glenn, the three-time U.S. champion who was fifth at the Olympics, had a clean short program with minor landing errors on her triple Axel (after struggling on it in warm-up) and triple flip-triple toe loop combo. She was the only skater to land a triple Axel on Wednesday.
Glenn only accepted one off-ice opportunity after Milan — the GLAAD Media Awards on March 5 in Beverly Hills, where she presented the Outstanding New Series award to the cast of “Heated Rivalry” — and kept her focus on worlds, even though she became “sick as a dog” after the Olympics with something resembling a sinus infection or bronchitis.
“There were so many (opportunities) that I wanted to do so bad, but I knew it was not the responsible choice,” she said.
At the Olympics, Glenn was 13th in the short after doubling a planned triple loop, then was third in the free skate to move up to fifth overall.
In her three previous worlds appearances, she was 10th, 10th and ninth in the short and ended up with a best finish of fifth in 2025. Glenn did win the biggest competition outside of the Olympics and worlds — the Grand Prix Final — in 2024.
In Wednesday’s post-short program press conference, Glenn brought up the figure skating cliche, you can’t win a competition in the short program, but you can certainly lose it.
“I’ve experienced that,” she said. “So to be in a good position after (the short) and not feel like I am clawing my way back and having to make this big comeback is really assuring.”
Levito, the 2024 World silver medalist who was 12th at the Olympics, landed a triple Lutz-triple loop — the highest base value jump combo of any skater — in her “Sophia Loren” medley program. Levito last did that combo at the 2023 World Team Trophy, according to SkatingScores.com.
She rebounded Wednesday after needing “five to six days” to get back to her New Jersey home after the Games. An East Coast storm delayed her return trip, which ended up taking her to Atlanta, then Denver.
She had a pre-planned commitment in Alaska, but that was nixed because by the time she made it to Colorado, she had come down with a flu-like sickness. So she flew back east to New Jersey.
The third American, Sarah Everhardt, was ninth in her worlds debut and one of four women in the short to receive +1 or higher grades of execution from all nine judges on all seven of her elements.
Everhardt was called up as an alternate to replace Liu, who announced her withdrawal from worlds on March 8. It’s common for Olympic medalists to skip the post-Olympic worlds due to off-ice opportunities.
“It felt really nervy,” Everhardt said. “Even going into the first jump, I was thinking about me messing it up. But then I was like, no, I can’t think like that. So I just told myself to trust myself and do my best and to do what I can do. After the first jumping pass, I think I relaxed a little bit.”
Amber Glenn could win her first World Figure Skating Championships medal on Friday, live on Peacock.
Germans lead pairs; U.S. looks to keep 3 world spots
Germans Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin topped the pairs’ short program by a scant 33 hundredths of a point over Olympic silver medalists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia.
Hase and Volodin also led after the Olympic short, then dropped to the bronze medal after placing fourth in the free skate.
In fact, the entire top four is the same from the Milan short with Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud and Hungarians Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko rounding out the group.
Olympic gold medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan opted not to defend their world title, opening it up for a first-time world champion decided in Thursday’s free skate.
Americans are sixth and seventh after the short — Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, who were seventh in Milan, followed by national champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who were sixth at 2025 Worlds.
Chan and Howe were originally alternates for worlds. They were called up to replace Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, who announced their withdrawal due to injury on March 16.
“We actually felt like it was kind of a blessing in disguise for us,” Howe said of the short notice. “I think that everyone coming off of the Olympics seemed pretty tired, and it makes total sense, right? Because it’s such a high from the Games, and then they know that they’re getting ready for worlds. For us, we had some shows after, so we stayed active, though we weren’t training necessarily. We were still moving. I felt like we had the best of both worlds. We had some true time in our minds where, like, our season’s done, but then when we got the call, we just picked up training again, and now here we are.”
Efimova and Mitrofanov were ineligible for the Olympics due to Efimova not having U.S. citizenship, but they can compete at all other top-level international events.
U.S. bronze medalists Daniil Parkman and Katie McBeath, in their worlds debut as a pair, are 11th.
The top two U.S. pairs’ overall results must add up to no more than 13 to keep the maximum three spots for the 2027 Worlds. Chan and Howe and Efimova and Mitrofanov are right on that number after the short.
Worlds continue Thursday with men’s short program before the pairs’ free, both live on Peacock.
Ilia Malinin goes for a World Championships three-peat this week, live on NBC Sports and Peacock.
