Hiro Yoshida

The figure skating season reaches its climax this week as the best skaters from across the globe converge on Boston for the World Figure Skating Championships. The championships will have an added poignancy, coming less than two months after the fatal crash of an American Airlines flight that killed 28 athletes, parents and coaches from the U.S. figure skating community, including several from the Skating Club of Boston. A tribute to the victims is planned on the opening day of competition.

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.