2025 World Figure Skating Championships

[irichluck21]

After SP USA is in 1, 3, 9 for the ladies.
Alysa Liu is in the lead, excited for her in her comeback.

 

[JDB]

They're doing one-question interviews in the kiss and cry area.

Interviewer: This is your second appearance at worlds. Was it easier than last time?
Artem Darenskyi: [breathing heavy] No.... no...

 

[Rich]

I was sad Glen fell on her triple axel. It would have been nice to have the us women all in the top 4

 

[JaJa]

I was sad Glen fell on her triple axel. It would have been nice to have the us women all in the top 4

I was really rooting for her. Not a big fan of figure skating but I was really interested in her neurotherapy undertaken to deal with the stress of competition.

 

[rlayt]

I find her very interesting. I’m sure there will be video to see.

I remember her fall from last year but I can’t remember what she fell on. I didn’t know she was doing some kind of therapy.

Had to edit because now i’m not sure which competition I remember that fall from.

 

[makam]

I find her very interesting. I’m sure there will be video to see.

I remember her fall from last year but I can’t remember what she fell on. I didn’t know she was doing some kind of therapy.

Had to edit because now i’m not sure which competition I remember that fall from.

I haven't been watching much lately (I don't know if they are still hiding the competitions behind paywalls but I definitely stopped watching when that happened) but I don't think Glen has been the most consistent competitor at any competition. I'm glad for her when it comes together but it doesn't often seem to come together. Happy Liu is having a good comeback.

 

[rlayt]

I saw one of Liu’s skates on Youtube from last year. Wearing a white tipped with blue bandage outfit. A very pretty skate.

 

[JaJa]

I find her very interesting. I’m sure there will be video to see.

I remember her fall from last year but I can’t remember what she fell on. I didn’t know she was doing some kind of therapy.

Had to edit because now i’m not sure which competition I remember that fall from.

Pasted from the WSJ

The Elite Skater Who Kept Cracking Under Pressure—Until She Rewired Her Brain​

Amber Glenn hasn’t lost an event all season–after finding a way to physically train herself for the stresses of competition​

March 25, 2025

For years, Amber Glenn was one of the top figure skaters in the U. S.—and also its most inconsistent. She was the popular and prodigious talent who could cruise through her practices and charge out of the gate, only to stumble when it really counted.

Then, at 25, Glenn did what few athletes with a reputation for crumbling under pressure ever manage. She figured it out.

This time last March, Glenn was crashing and burning on her way to a 10th-place finish in the world championships. One year on, she will take the ice in Boston this week as a favorite to win the world title for one simple reason: She hasn’t lost a single competition this season.

Glenn credits her stunning turnaround to a technique called neurotherapy, in which she literally trains her body for high-stakes situations, rather than hoping to push through with mantras. Willing herself to calm down wasn’t cutting it. Learning to manage her nervous system under competition conditions has worked out far better.

“I was thinking all the right things and doing my best, but I was still faltering at competition,” Glenn said. The new approach, she added, “helped me feel more in control of my own brain than I ever was before.”

When she skates her short program on Wednesday, Glenn will help to answer one of the most-discussed and least-understood questions in sports: can choking be cured?

It turns out that Glenn’s problem was never all in her head—and nor was the solution.

“Her heart rate would get so high during the event, she would get gassed out,” said Damon Allen, who has coached her since 2022.

The 25-year-old figure skater hasn’t lost a domestic or international competition all season. Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Allen knew that she couldn’t just snap out of it. And he could see in real time how the stress of competition would torpedo his skater’s technical abilities. The adrenaline of landing a triple axel could literally throw her off her next jump. A single fall would leave her shaky and visibly losing focus, looking for him across the rink in a panic.

“It would snowball,” he said. “Last year at worlds, she was in the best shape ever… Then she makes one mistake, and can’t figure out how to get back in it. We came back and we’re like, we’ve got to do something totally different here.”

That something different turned out to be physically preparing for what would happen under the bright lights, and then learning to respond differently.

Glenn’s longtime sports psychologist, Caroline Silby, says they looked to neurotherapy after years of work to embrace discomfort rather than judge it, and shift from seeking perfection into a problem-solving mindset.

For that to help in competition, they realized, Glenn needed to be able to regulate her physiological responses first.

So, twice a week, Glenn has been hooked up to sensors at a clinic called Neurotherapy of Colorado Springs, while she listens to her program music, or watches videos of herself skating.

The sensors on her head monitor electrical activity in her brain, and another on her finger keeps track of her heart rate and heart rate variability.

“She looks like quite the science experiment when she’s sitting here,” said Chris Edwards, Glenn’s neurotherapist. “We’re able to provide them feedback, this is what you want to be, the zone you want to be in… as quantified by your heart rate and brain activity.”

The idea is to get used to the feeling of being in competition, until it becomes routine—and to practice staying in control, through breathing and other techniques, even as clinic staff deliberately move around or bang doors to throw her off.

Glenn can see how she’s doing by watching the raw data, known as “neuro feedback” and “bio feedback.” She has an app to practice with at home every day as well that tracks her heart rate.

“She’s getting to rehearse what her best self should feel like while she’s doing what she needs to do,” Edwards said.

This time a year ago, Glenn finished the world championships in 10th place after two rocky performances. Photo: eric bolte/Reuters
In the clinic she can also follow her physiological markers in the form of a low-tech videogame in which the data is converted into an image, which she tries to control by keeping her heart rate as even as possible.

In one game, the image is of a car and the goal is to keep it moving around the track with even speed. (“The way you are controlling that car is by controlling your brain,” Edwards says.) If she gets out of “the zone” then the car swerves. In another game, she has to move an elephant trunk up and down.

“It’s literally like training a dog with a clicker, ‘Good job, good job brain,’” said Glenn. “It is so basic, but also so intricate.”

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[rlayt]

I would have loved to try that when I was young. Before i had to start taking anxiety meds.

 

[JDB]

I enjoyed Minerva Fabienne Hasse and Nikita Volodin's free skate. Volodin will need to attain German citizenship if he wants to compete at the Olympics next year.

 

[Rich]

Alysa Liu Wins First Women’s World Championships Gold for Team USA Since 2006​

The last time an American woman captured the World Championships crown, 19-year-old Alysa Liu was seven months old. A little over a year ago, the San Francisco Bay Area native was enjoying retirement from the sport to which she had dedicated most of her young life, blissfully unaware what the world had in store for her. Tonight, in front of a capacity crowd at Boston's TD Garden, Liu became the 14th American woman to have the honor of ascending to the top of the World Championships podium.

"I haven't been on my phone yet, so I don't know who has called to congratulate me," Liu said after the competition. "When I do have a minute, the first people I am going to call is my siblings because they have no idea that this is happening."

Liu's victory is as unexpected as it is remarkable for the simple fact that this season was, in the gold medalist's words, "just for fun." But as Liu trained, the competitive drive that propelled her to win two U.S. titles, an Olympic team berth and a bronze medal at the World Championships three years ago kicked into overdrive. A steely competitor, Liu's infectious joy for competition could be felt all the way up into the rafters, and as her Donna Summer "MacArthur Park" free skate progressed, so too did her grit and determination.

"I have never regretted anything in my life – every decision that I made, I am glad that I did," stated Liu who has now medaled in both her World Championships appearances. "It all brought me to this moment."

Dressed appropriately in gold, Liu connected on each of her jumping passes – landing seven triple jumps – secured Level 4s on each of her spins and step sequences, and earned positive grades of execution on every element en route the crown. Her free skate score of 148.39 was her best this season by 16.93 points.

Her total competition score, 222.97 points, is not only an international personal best but also the second-highest ever by an American woman, making her the one to beat heading into Milano Cortina.

"This means so much to me," Liu said of her victory. "Everything that I have been through – my time away and all that. This time around I'm so happy, I guess. I'm mostly glad that I could put out two of my best performances, and I am really happy with how things went today."

Silver a year ago, Isabeau Levito put up a great fight in defense of her international standing, but just fell short of the podium, finishing in fourth. The 18-year-old fell on the back half of her opening triple flip-triple toe loop combination, the lone glaring error in her "Liebestraum" free skate.

"After that first jump, I wanted to leave the ice," Levito admitted. "I was like, 'Why did you do that?' But I am just glad that I kept fighting until the end. Usually when I compete, I tell myself no matter what happens in the program, to fight for each element because you never know what might happen."

Levito's program read like a poem – deep edges that gently caressed the ice but with passion that could only come from the heart. The New Jersey native landed five clean triple jumps to go along with Level 4 elements from start to finish, earning Levito 136.51 points in the segment and a season's international best 209.84 points overall.

"I love how it's dainty and pretty," Levito shared. "I love that part of the sport – getting to play different characters."

Two-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn moved up from ninth place after the short program to finish in fifth place overall – her best World Championships placement in three tries. Tallying 138.00, the 25-year-old opened with a solid triple Axel in her "I Will Find You The Return" routine before barreling into arguably the best triple flip-triple toe loop combination of her season.

"I'm proud of myself for fighting," Glenn said. "The audience really got me through the program."

Glenn acknowledged that her coach, Damon Allen, has been a consistent support for her, and she is happy to have him in her corner.

"I have been dealing with a lot of mental health struggles and a lot of grief and loss," Glenn revealed. "Coming into this event, I didn't exactly feel like the powerful (competitor) that I need be.

"Damon takes me for who I am and where I am in the moment," she continued. "If I'm upset and think that everything is not fine, he doesn't try to convince me that it is. He just helps me work through it, and that has been a big help."

The 2024 Grand Prix Final champion was credited with seven triple jumps in her program with the lone mistake coming on a triple flip attempt that she doubled. Glenn finished the competition with 205.65 points.

This marks the first time three U.S. women have finished in the top five at Worlds 2001 (Michelle Kwan, Sarah Hughes, Angela Nikodinov). The results guaranteed the United States three quota spots for both the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2026.

In the afternoon session, Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the first step in defending their World title, finishing in first place in the rhythm dance. The duo is seeking their third consecutive title, a feat that would give them the most titles by any U.S. team in history.

 

[irichluck21]

Congrats to Alysa Liu. Well deserved.

 

[irichluck21]

Breathtaking performance!!

 

[JDB]

Great free skate from Deniss Vasiljevs (geoblocked in some countries).

 

[Rich]

I guess the us really needs Jason brown. He helps to get the third spot. The younger athletes have not been able to step up.

 

[Rich]

Are the Russian skaters eligible to compete at the olympics next year?

 

[irichluck21]

Jason Brown is similar to Adam Rippon was. Andrew Torgashev had a disaster of a free skate.

Russian skaters are banned from the 2026 Olympics. But some can qualify as neutral athletes and attempt to qualify via ISU Qualifier in September.

 

[Rich]

Jason Brown is similar to Adam Rippon was. Andrew Torgashev had a disaster of a free skate.
Its a shame as he was looking great this season

 

[RAFIKI]

Four year fan here but I did watch some of the men’s long. When did cartwheels become a thing in figure skating?

 

[MaryClare]

Are the Russian skaters eligible to compete at the olympics next year?

Yes, as neutral athletes (1 per discipline). However the rules are slightly different compared with gymnastics. Both the skater and their coaches must meet the criteria for neutral status.