Four years after the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Montreal finally got its opportunity to host the World Figure Skating Championships last week.
A lot has changed in the intervening years, particularly in the women’s category. Russian women, who were favored to sweep the medal podium in 2020, have not appeared on the international stage since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. And since then, one woman has dominated the rest of the field.
World champion in both 2022 and 2023, Kobe native Kaori Sakamoto arrived in Montreal aiming to become the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since Peggy Fleming from the United States claimed gold from 1966 to 1968.