2022 World Figure Skating Championships
Type:	ISU Championship
Date:	March 21 – 27
Season:	2021–22
Location:	Montpellier, France
Host:	French Federation of Ice Sports
Venue:	Sud de France Arena
Champions
Men's singles: Shoma Uno
Women's singles: Kaori Sakamoto
Pairs: Alexa Knierim andBrandon Frazier
Ice dance: Gabriella Papadakis andGuillaume Cizeron
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Previous: 2021 World Championships
Next: 2023 World Championships

The2022 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 21 to 27, 2022, at theSud de France Arena inMontpellier, France. Sanctioned by theInternational Skating Union (ISU), theWorld Championships are considered the most prestigious event in figure skating. Medals were awarded inmen's singles, women's singles,pair skating, andice dance. The competition determined the entry quotas for each skating federation at the2023 World Championships.Shoma Uno andKaori Sakamoto, both of Japan, won the men's and women's events, respectively.Alexa Knierim andBrandon Frazier of the United States won the pairs event, andGabriella Papadakis andGuillaume Cizeron of France won the ice dance event.

TheWorld Figure Skating Championships are considered the most prestigious event in figure skating.^[1] The 2022 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 21 to 27, 2022, at theSud de France Arena inMontpellier, France.^[2] The 2022 World Championships were notable for a number of absences following the2022 Winter Olympics. Reigning World and Olympic championNathan Chen of the United States and two-time World and Olympic championYuzuru Hanyu of Japan bowed out, citing injuries.^[3][4] Additionally, theChinese Skating Association opted not to send any skaters to the competition.^[5]

In 2016, anindependent report commissioned by theWorld Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed allegations that the Russian Olympic team had been involved in astate-sponsored doping program, active from at least late 2011 through August, 2015.^[6] On December 9, 2019, the WADA banned Russia from all international competitions after it found that data provided by theRussian Anti-Doping Agency had been manipulated by Russian authorities in order to protect athletes involved in its state-sponsored doping scheme.^[7] Under the ban imposed by theCourt of Arbitration for Sport, Russian athletes could not use the Russian flag or anthem in international competition and had to present themselves as "Neutral Athletes" or a "Neutral Team" at any world championships.^[8] On February 19, 2022,Anna Shcherbakova stated her intention to compete at the World Championships after winning the Olympic gold medal.^[9]

After the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,Nathalie Péchalat, then-president of theFrench Federation of Ice Sports, announced that no Russian or Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete at the World Championships in France due to travel restrictions imposed by the French government, with no official word from theInternational Skating Union (ISU) as to whether the ban would extend further. When Péchalat's announcement was made, there were discussions about Russian skaters trying to attend the World Championships by flying into neighboring countries and traveling to Montpellier by road.^[10] On March 1, 2022, the ISU banned all Russian and Belarusian skaters from participating in any international skating events.^[11] These World Championships became the first major sporting event around the world, excluding the2022 Winter Paralympics, to proceed with a Russian and Belarusian ban.^[12]

The number of entries from each nation for the 2022 World Championships was based on the results of the2021 World Championships. These nations were eligible to enter more than one skater or team in the indicated disciplines.^[13]

Number of entries per discipline^[13]

Spots	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice dance
3	Japan  United States	Japan  United States	China	Canada  United States
2	Canada  France  Italy  South Korea	Austria  Belgium  South Korea	Canada  Italy  Japan  United States	Great Britain  Italy

TheInternational Skating Union published a complete list of entrants on March 2, 2022.^[14]

Women competing insingle skating first performed theirshort programs on Wednesday, March 23, while men performed theirs on Thursday, March 24.^[2] Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds,^[34] the short program had to include the following elements:

For men: onedouble or triple Axel; onetriple or quadruple jump; onejump combination consisting of a double jump and a triple jump, two triple jumps, or a quadruple jump and a double jump or triple jump; oneflying spin; onecamel spin orsit spin with a change of foot; onespin combination with a change of foot; and astep sequence using the full ice surface.^[35]

For women: one double or triple Axel; one triple jump; one jump combination consisting of a double jump and a triple jump, or two triple jumps; one flying spin; onelayback spin,sideways leaning spin, camel spin, or sit spin without a change of foot; one spin combination with a change of foot; and one step sequence using the full ice surface.^[35]

The top 24 skaters after completion of the short program component of the competition moved on to thefree skating component. Women performed their free skates on Friday, March 25; men performed theirs on Saturday, March 26.^[2] The free skate performance for both men and women could last no more than 4 minutes,^[34] and had to include the following: seven jump elements, of which one had to be an Axel-type jump; three spins, of which one had to be a spin combination, one had to be a flying spin, and one had to be a spin with only one position; a step sequence; and achoreographic sequence.^[36]

Couples competing inpair skating performed their short programs on Wednesday, March 23.^[2] Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds,^[37] it had to include the following elements: onepair lift, onetwist lift, onedouble or triple throw jump, onedouble or triple solo jump, onesolo spin combination with a change of foot, onedeath spiral, and a step sequence using the full ice surface.^[38]

The top 20 couples after completion of the short program component moved on to the free skating component, which were performed on Thursday, March 24.^[2] The free skate performance could last no more than 4 minutes,^[34] and had to include the following: three pair lifts, of which one had to be a twist lift; two different throw jumps; one solo jump; one jump combination or sequence; onepair spin combination; one death spiral; and a choreographic sequence.^[39]

Couples competing inice dance performed theirrhythm dances on Friday, March 25.^[2] Lasting no more than 2 minutes 50 seconds,^[34] the theme of the rhythm dance this season was "street dance rhythms". Examples of applicable dance styles included, but were not limited, to:hip-hop,disco,swing,krump,popping,funk,jazz,reggae (reggaeton), andblues. The requiredpattern dance element was the Midnight Blues.^[40] The rhythm dance had to include the following elements: the pattern dance, the pattern dance step sequence, onedance lift, one set ofsequential twizzles, and onestep sequence.^[41]

The top 20 couples after the rhythm dance moved on to thefree dance, which was held on Saturday, March 26.^[2] The free dance performance could last no longer than 4 minutes,^[34] and had to include the following: three dance lifts, onedance spin, one set ofsynchronized twizzles, one step sequence in hold, one step sequence while on one skate and not touching, and threechoreographic elements, of which one had to be a choreographic character step sequence.^[42]

For the 2021–2022 season, all of the technical elements in any figure skating performance – such asjumps,spins, andlifts – were assigned a predetermined base point value and were then scored by a panel of nine judges on a scale from −5 to 5 based on their quality of execution.^[43] The judging panel's Grade of Execution (GOE) was determined by calculating thetrimmed mean (that is, an average after deleting the highest and lowest scores), and this GOE was added to the base value to come up with the final score for each element. The panel's scores for all elements were added together to generate a total element score.^[44] At the same time, judges evaluated each performance based on five program components – skating skills, transitions, performance, composition, and interpretation of the music – and assigned a score from .25 to 10 in .25 point increments.^[45] The judging panel's final score for each program component was also determined by calculating the trimmed mean. Those scores were then multiplied by the factor shown on the following chart; the results were added together to generate a total program component score.^[46]

Deductions were applied for certain violations like time infractions, stops and restarts, or falls.^[48] The total element score and total program component score were added together, minus any deductions, to generate a final performance score for each skater or team.^[49]

From left to right: The 2022 World Champions:Shoma Uno of Japan (men's singles);Kaori Sakamoto of Japan (women's singles); andGabriella Papadakis andGuillaume Cizeron of France (ice dance)
Not pictured:Alexa Knierim andBrandon Frazier of the United States (pair skating)

Medals were awarded to the skaters or teams who achieved the highest overall placements in each discipline.

Small medals were awarded to the skaters or teams who achieved the highestshort program orrhythm dance placements in each discipline.

Small medals were awarded to the skaters or teams who achieved the highestfree skate orfree dance placements in each discipline.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan	2	2	0	4
2	United States	1	1	3	5
3	France	1	0	0	1
4	Belgium	0	1	0	1
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
Totals (5 entries)		4	4	4	12

The following newrecord high scores were set during this event.

Donovan Carrillo of Mexico had to withdraw prior to theshort program when the luggage with his skates did not arrive in time for the competition.^[54]Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea withdrew from the free skate due to problems with his boots.^[55]

During the short program, one judge received backlash from fans and the media for noting thatIvan Shmuratko of Ukraine had committed a "costume/prop violation" for wearing the Ukrainian national team's training outfit rather than his traditional skating costume.^[56] Shmuratko did not receive a deduction due to a majority of the judges' votes being required, while the crowd gave him a standing ovation for his performance.^[57]

Shoma Uno of Japan won the gold medal after a free skate that featured aquadruple loop,quadruple Salchow,quadruple flip, and aquadruple toe loop in combination, and his free skate score of 202.85 was a career-best for him.Yuma Kagiyama of Japan won the silver medal, whileVincent Zhou of the United States rallied back from a sixth-place finish in the short program to win the bronze medal.^[58]

Men's results^[59]

Rank	Skater	Nation	Total	SP		FS
	Shoma Uno	Japan	312.48	1	109.63	1	202.85
	Yuma Kagiyama	Japan	297.60	2	105.69	2	191.91
	Vincent Zhou	United States	277.38	6	95.84	4	181.54
4	Morisi Kvitelashvili	Georgia	272.03	7	92.61	5	179.42
5	Camden Pulkinen	United States	271.69	12	89.50	3	182.19
6	Kazuki Tomono	Japan	269.37	3	101.12	8	168.25
7	Daniel Grassl	Italy	266.66	5	97.62	7	169.04
8	Adam Siao Him Fa	France	266.12	10	90.97	6	175.15
9	Ilia Malinin	United States	263.79	4	100.16	11	163.63
10	Matteo Rizzo	Italy	255.75	8	91.67	10	164.08
11	Kévin Aymoz	France	245.46	15	85.26	12	160.20
12	Roman Sadovsky	Canada	245.36	18	80.54	9	164.82
13	Deniss Vasiļjevs	Latvia	243.00	11	90.95	14	152.05
14	Keegan Messing	Canada	235.03	9	91.18	17	143.85
15	Mihhail Selevko	Estonia	234.72	20	78.85	13	155.87
16	Vladimir Litvintsev	Azerbaijan	233.62	14	85.83	15	147.79
17	Maurizio Zandron	Austria	228.27	16	83.10	16	145.17
18	Lee Si-hyeong	South Korea	225.06	13	86.35	18	138.71
19	Nikolaj Majorov	Sweden	216.45	19	79.36	20	137.09
20	Graham Newberry	Great Britain	210.40	21	74.92	21	135.48
21	Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté	Spain	208.95	24	71.42	19	137.53
22	Nikita Starostin	Germany	205.72	23	73.79	22	131.93
23	Ivan Shmuratko	Ukraine	196.65	22	73.99	23	122.66
WD	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	Withdrew	17	82.43	Withdrew from competition
25	Mark Gorodnitsky	Israel	69.70	25	69.70	Did not advance to free skate
26	Adam Hagara	Slovakia	60.92	26	60.92
27	Vladimir Samoilov	Poland	60.71	27	60.71
28	Burak Demirboğa	Turkey	52.86	28	52.86
29	Aleksandr Vlasenko	Hungary	51.10	29	51.10
WD	Donovan Carrillo	Mexico	Withdrew from competition

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan won the gold medal in the women's event, outscoring silver medalistLoena Hendrickx of Belgium by nearly twenty points. Despite an injury, Hendrickx became the first Belgian to win a World Championship medal in the women's event. "I had a lot of pain," Hendrickx stated after the competition, "but I wanted to show one last time that I can do it to finish my season strong."^[60] With sixtriple jumps,Alysa Liu of the United States finished in third place. "I think I did really good. I’m really proud of myself," Liu stated. "I didn’t think I could do better than the Olympics."^[60]

Women's results^[61]

Rank	Skater	Nation	Total	SP		FS
	Kaori Sakamoto	Japan	236.09	1	80.32	1	155.77
	Loena Hendrickx	Belgium	217.70	2	75.00	2	142.70
	Alysa Liu	United States	211.19	5	71.91	3	139.28
4	Mariah Bell	United States	208.66	3	72.55	4	136.11
5	You Young	South Korea	204.91	4	72.08	6	132.83
6	Anastasiia Gubanova	Georgia	196.61	14	62.59	5	134.02
7	Lee Hae-in	South Korea	196.55	11	64.16	7	132.39
8	Karen Chen	United States	192.51	8	66.16	8	126.35
9	Ekaterina Ryabova	Azerbaijan	188.50	9	65.52	11	122.98
10	Nicole Schott	Germany	188.42	6	67.77	14	120.65
11	Wakaba Higuchi	Japan	188.15	7	67.03	12	121.12
12	Madeline Schizas	Canada	188.14	10	64.20	10	123.94
13	Ekaterina Kurakova	Poland	186.43	16	61.92	9	124.51
14	Olga Mikutina	Austria	182.98	15	62.14	13	120.84
15	Mana Kawabe	Japan	182.44	12	63.68	15	118.76
16	Niina Petrõkina	Estonia	176.60	17	60.24	16	116.36
17	Lindsay van Zundert	Netherlands	171.39	18	58.49	17	112.90
18	Julia Sauter	Romania	170.31	19	58.07	18	112.24
19	Alexia Paganini	Switzerland	170.02	13	63.09	19	106.93
20	Lara Naki Gutmann	Italy	164.39	20	57.92	20	106.47
21	Josefin Taljegård	Sweden	163.24	21	57.52	21	105.72
22	Kailani Craine	Australia	161.75	22	56.64	22	105.11
23	Natasha McKay	Great Britain	159.27	24	55.71	23	103.56
24	Daša Grm	Slovenia	147.12	23	55.82	24	91.30
25	Jenni Saarinen	Finland	55.30	25	55.30	Did not advance to free skate
26	Ting Tzu-Han	Chinese Taipei	55.24	26	55.24
27	Eliška Březinová	Czech Republic	55.07	27	55.07
28	Alexandra Feigin	Bulgaria	55.01	28	55.01
29	Léa Serna	France	54.30	29	54.30
30	Marilena Kitromilis	Cyprus	53.32	30	53.32
31	Júlia Láng	Hungary	47.93	31	47.93
32	Stefanie Pesendorfer	Austria	47.23	32	47.23
33	Anete Lāce	Latvia	44.60	33	44.60

Sofiia Holichenko andArtem Darenskyi of Ukraine chose to withdraw from thefree skate due to a lack of training time following theWinter Olympics as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[62]

Ashley Cain-Gribble andTimothy LeDuc of the United States, who were in second place after theshort program, were forced to withdraw after Cain-Gribble fell during the free skate and knocked her head against the ice, requiring her to be removed from the ice on a stretcher and hospitalized.^[63]

Alexa Knierim andBrandon Frazier of the United States won gold medals; it was the first time that an American pairs team had won the World Championship title sinceTai Babilonia andRandy Gardner in 1979.^[64] Knierim and Frazier received a career-best score of 144.21 in the free skate and 221.09 overall to win the gold. "I had so many emotions," Knierim stated afterward. "It was so much gratitude, fulfillment, excitement, and disbelief."^[65]

Pairs results^[66]

Rank	Team	Nation	Total	SP		FS
	Alexa Knierim Brandon Frazier	United States	221.09	1	76.88	1	144.21
	Riku Miura Ryuichi Kihara	Japan	199.55	3	71.58	3	127.97
	Vanessa James Eric Radford	Canada	197.32	5	66.54	2	130.78
4	Karina Safina Luka Berulava	Georgia	191.74	4	67.36	4	124.38
5	Minerva Fabienne Hase Nolan Seegert	Germany	189.61	6	66.29	5	123.32
6	Evelyn Walsh Trennt Michaud	Canada	176.02	8	60.28	6	115.74
7	Miriam Ziegler Severin Kiefer	Austria	166.68	7	60.79	7	105.89
8	Camille Kovalev Pavel Kovalev	France	153.73	9	50.95	8	102.78
9	Daria Danilova Michel Tsiba	Netherlands	148.55	11	49.52	9	99.03
10	Zoe Jones Christopher Boyadji	Great Britain	144.24	10	49.67	10	94.57
11	Dorota Broda Pedro Betegón Martín	Spain	133.58	12	48.66	11	84.92
12	Hailey Kops Evgeni Krasnopolski	Israel	126.45	14	44.45	12	82.00
WD	Ashley Cain-Gribble Timothy LeDuc	United States	Withdrew	2	75.85	Withdrew from competition
	Sofiia Holichenko Artem Darenskyi	Ukraine		13	44.95

One day prior to therhythm dance, the ISU rejected the proposed program by Ukrainian ice dancersOleksandra Nazarova andMaksym Nikitin. Their program was set to music by Ukrainian artists – "1944" byJamala and the Ukrainian folk song "Oi u luzi chervona kalyna" performed byAndriy Khlyvnyuk ofBoomBox – and included a fifteen-second snippet of a speech by Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian language calling for peace; the ISU cited the speech portion of the program as "propaganda".^[67] Following intervention by their federation, Nazarova and Nikitin were allowed to compete using a version featuring only the music and, likeIvan Shmuratko, they wore the colors of the Ukrainian national team rather than their traditional costumes and received a standing ovation.^[67][68] Despite limited training time leading up to the event, they said that they wanted to perform their new program to "express what they are living through."^[69] After the rhythm dance, Mikhail Makarov, president of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation, issued an appeal toJan Dijkema, president of the ISU, andSergey Bubka, president of theNational Olympic Committee of Ukraine, seeking to understand the rationale behind the ISU's decision.^[67] Nazarova and Nikitin later withdrew from thefree dance, feeling that performing their upbeat program set to music fromMoulin Rouge! was inappropriate in light of theRussian invasion of Ukraine.^[70][71]

Gabriella Papadakis andGuillaume Cizeron of France, who were favored to win the ice dance event, broke their own world record scores in the rhythm dance, the free dance, and the overall total, ultimately winning their fifth World Championship title. Cizeron described the experience as "one of the most beautiful competitions of our career."^[72]Madison Hubbell andZachary Donohue of the United States, in what ended up being the last competition of their career, finish second, whileMadison Chock andEvan Bates, also of the United States, finished third. "I feel incredibly emotional,” Chock stated afterward. “It was a dream... to be back on the podium after what feels like a very, very long time."^[72]

Ice dance results^[73]

Rank	Team	Nation	Total	RD		FD
	Gabriella Papadakis Guillaume Cizeron	France	229.82	1	92.73	1	137.09
	Madison Hubbell Zachary Donohue	United States	222.39	2	89.72	2	132.67
	Madison Chock Evan Bates	United States	216.83	3	87.51	3	129.32
4	Charlène Guignard Marco Fabbri	Italy	209.92	4	84.22	4	125.70
5	Piper Gilles Paul Poirier	Canada	202.70	5	80.79	5	121.91
6	Lilah Fear Lewis Gibson	Great Britain	198.17	7	78.89	6	119.28
7	Olivia Smart Adrián Díaz	Spain	194.63	6	79.40	7	115.23
8	Kaitlin Hawayek Jean-Luc Baker	United States	191.61	9	76.56	8	115.05
9	Laurence Fournier Beaudry Nikolaj Sørensen	Canada	188.54	8	78.29	9	110.25
10	Allison Reed Saulius Ambrulevičius	Lithuania	180.21	10	74.06	11	106.15
11	Marjorie Lajoie Zachary Lagha	Canada	178.84	13	70.39	10	108.45
12	Juulia Turkkila Matthias Versluis	Finland	175.95	12	71.88	12	104.07
13	Natálie Taschlerová Filip Taschler	Czech Republic	172.23	11	72.55	14	99.68
14	Tina Garabedian Simon Proulx-Sénécal	Armenia	170.32	14	68.50	13	101.82
15	Maria Kazakova Georgy Reviya	Georgia	165.38	17	66.76	15	98.62
16	Kana Muramoto Daisuke Takahashi	Japan	164.25	15	67.77	16	96.48
17	Sasha Fear George Waddell	Great Britain	160.05	18	66.69	18	93.36
18	Holly Harris Jason Chan	Australia	159.92	19	64.91	17	95.01
19	Solène Mazingue Marko Jevgeni Gaidajenko	Estonia	149.04	20	63.97	19	85.07
WD	Oleksandra Nazarova Maksym Nikitin	Ukraine	Withdrew	16	67.70	Withdrew from competition
21	Shira Ichilov Volodymyr Byelikov	Israel	62.57	21	62.57	Did not advance to free dance
22	Mariia Ignateva Danijil Szemko	Hungary	62.12	22	62.12
23	Jasmine Tessari Stéphane Walker	Switzerland	60.75	23	60.75
24	Charlotte Lafond-Fournier Richard Kang-in Kam	New Zealand	59.45	24	59.45
25	Mária Sofia Pucherová Nikita Lysak	Slovakia	58.27	25	58.27
26	Carolina Moscheni Francesco Fioretti	Italy	58.21	26	58.22
27	Ekaterina Mitrofanova Vladislav Kasinskij	Bosnia and Herzegovina	55.01	27	55.01
28	Anastasia Polibina Pavel Golovishnikov	Poland	50.73	28	50.73
29	Ekaterina Kuznetsova Oleksandr Kolosovskyi	Azerbaijan	49.14	29	49.14
30	Aurelija Ipolito Luke Russell	Latvia	46.00	30	46.00
31	Gaukhar Nauryzova Boyisangur Datiev	Kazakhstan	45.87	31	45.87

The number of entries from each nation for the2023 World Figure Skating Championships was based on the results of the 2022 World Championships. These nations would be eligible to enter more than one skater or team in the indicated disciplines.^[74]

Number of entries per discipline^[74]

Spots	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice dance
3	Japan  United States	Belgium  Japan  South Korea  United States	Canada  Japan  United States	France  United States
2	Canada  France  Georgia  Italy	Azerbaijan  Georgia  Germany	Austria  France  Georgia  Germany  Great Britain  Netherlands	Canada  Great Britain  Italy  Lithuania  Spain

On March 23,Simon Reed, who was providing commentary for the 2022 World Championships, was caught on ahot mic referring toMeagan Duhamel, two-time World Champion inpair skating, as "that bitch from Canada," while his co-hostNicky Slater could be heard laughing in the background. Duhamel had criticized the pair's commentary the day before on social media.^[75] As a result, theInternational Skating Union (ISU) removed both Reed and Slater as commentators for the remainder of the competition, as well as any future ISU events. "There is no place for harassing and abusive language or remarks and behavior in sport and our society," the ISU said in a statement.^[76]

• "Special Regulations & Technical Rules – Single & Pair Skating and Ice Dance 2021".International Skating Union. Archived fromthe original on April 4, 2022. RetrievedApril 4, 2022.

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