2024 Worlds Preview: Women!

Welcome back to your 2024 Worlds Figure Skating Preview!

Yesterday, we talked about the Pairs event, which will essentially be determined by a game of Plinko. Today, we get into the Women, which is only slightly less up to chance.

The Contenders!

There’s a pretty broad pool of possibility here, though I’d say there’s more consistent quality talent among the Women than the Pairs. It seems like many of these skaters get sucker punched by nerves, but the ceiling for great performance is high.

It is actually genuinely fun to watch the Women right now because there is so much talent and so much unpredictability and no specter of doping 15-year-olds dominating everything. It’s the right kind of edge-of-your-seat competition; not the Pairs version in which you just hope someone rises to the occasion enough.

Also of note: this could potentially be the last Russia-less year; I suspect Kamila got thrown under the bus as part of a secret deal to get the Russians back into competition. (What am I basing this on? We don’t have time right now. Just trust me that it’s possible given the shenanigans regularly pulled within the ISU.) All of these skaters know this could be their last chance to jockey for position in a fair field.

Two names I anticipate will make the podium, though medal color is a shrug:

• Kaori Sakamoto (Japan): Won the last two Worlds, has a chance to 3-peat, which hasn’t happened in the Women’s event in 56 years. I love her skating— she makes everything look easy, and she picks mostly interesting music that hasn’t been done a million times. (Admittedly, she’s skating to notorious war horse “Feeling Good” this year, but it’s the Lauryn Hill version rather than the cringey Bublé version.) If she’s clean, she’s virtually unbeatable in this field. But this has not been her best season, even though she’s won everything she’s entered. She’s stayed on top because other people did worse. I don’t think she’s a given here. But her kiss and cry facial expressions are top tier when she does well, so I’m rooting for her.

  

• Loena Hendrickx (Belgium): On podium for last two Worlds. She doesn’t quite have the technical ability to take down Kaori, but she can take advantage if Kaori misses. I appreciate Loena because she gave up on being an angel on ice this year and just went with two Euro Club programs. At one point, she wore bedazzled spankies under her skating skirt. She seems to have switched to a catsuit now, which is a better sartorial move but less interesting. I also appreciate Loena because she just gave an interview in which she stopped just short of saying what all the other women skaters must be thinking— Kamila isn’t the only Russian woman doping; she’s just the one that got caught. You can read translated highlights of that interview here. She also refers to Nina Pinzaronne as “the other Belgian girl,” which makes me cackle. (More about that shortly— just trust me that it’s catty and funny.)

  

Some other names in the mix— it really comes down to who makes the least mistakes because they’re all capable of big scores on a good day:

• Isabeau Levito (USA): She has the goods, she has the reputation points, she has the Big Fed schmoozing for her. Her jump technique does not look great to me; she always looks like she’s about to throw out her back. But I’m not a technical expert, and she does land stuff pretty well when she’s not overtaken by nerves— her mental game is messy this season. She’s clearly overthinking everything. Alysa Liu’s comeback announcement either lit a fire under her or scared the crap out of her. I’m curious to see which Isabeau shows up here. I hope it’s the scrappy one.

• Nina Pinzaronne (Belgium): “The Other Belgian Girl.” She gave an interview earlier this season where she said Loena was scared of her because she was so young and already so good. Meanwhile, Loena continues to be at the top of the season’s best scores while Nina doesn’t crack the Top 10. Still, she’s had a breakout season and has been very consistent. She could make a move if nerves get the best of everyone else. And I LOVE that Belgium has TWO contenders! Small Feds rise! Who knew that BELGIUM would bring the diva rivalry? It’s like Tan vs Bobby on ice!

• Anastasia Gubanova (Georgia): Another secret Russian. She lives and trains in St Petersburg. Last year, she told an interviewer that she had been to Georgia once and it was very beautiful and she has learned a few words of the language. (Insert exasperated face here.) She’s a beautiful ballerina skater, and she always seems mildly disappointed by her scores. I assume she gets the scores the other Russian ladies would get if they were scored without the Russian bonus— very good but not incredible. (To be fair, I do think she is occasionally underscored.) She’s usually in the mix for medals, but she’ll need a couple of other people to falter here.

• Mone Chiba and Hana Yoshida (Japan): Japan could actually sweep the podium if all three of their skaters do their best. Both Mone and Hana have had real star moments this year, but they’ve also had some sloppy skates. Mone killed it at her last two events, even winning Four Continents. Momentum could be on her side here. I think she’s the most likely of the Others to make it on the podium.

• All the Korean Skaters: Truly, any one of them could win the whole thing, under the right circumstances, but they’ve all had meh seasons. And South Korea does this wild domestic competition series schedule that exhausts their skaters in the last half of the season, so they often falter at Worlds. Hae-in Lee won silver last year, but her most recent competition at Four Continents was pretty hard to watch. She said she got a “huge shock” before that event, so maybe her mental game will be better here?

• Amber Glenn (USA): Our US Champ and Bisexual rep advocate! I keep seeing Amber on prediction lists because her potential is so sky high, but the truth is that her season’s best is not even in the Top 10. She keeps falling apart in the second half of the free skate. She’s killing it in the short program, landing her Triple Axel consistently at the beginning of her free… and then there’s a sad trombone as she starts popping her jumps like popcorn in her last two minutes of competition. I think she wins bronze here if she can hold it together— the judges are DYING to give her a huge score, as evidenced by the good scores she’s getting even with messy endings.

While we’re on the subject of Amber Glenn, she’s instrumental in my big question for the Women’s Event…

Can the US Women get back 3 spots for Boston Worlds next year?

Like I already told you yesterday, next year’s Worlds is pretty clutch. The placements will determine how many Olympic entries each country gets to have in 2026. For the US, it’s a home Worlds with a home country advantage. They’re setting the table the best they can. But it’s up to Amber and Isabeau to eat.

The US Women had 3 spots at Worlds last year, but they dropped to two this year thanks to low placements from Amber and Bradie Tennell. If Amber and Isabeau both do what they’re capable of doing, they’ll get the three spots back with no issue. If they do what they’ve done all season— let nerves get the best of the them in the free— it will be a nail biter. With Ava Z, Alysa Liu, and Bradie Tennell (presumably) in the mix next year, this isn’t just about the spots. It’s also about solidifying their reputations as the best US Women skaters.

Other Things To Watch:

• If Canada does end up with that Olympic Team Event bronze medal, it’s because of Maddie Schizas. She nailed it when it counted in 2022. She’s the lone Woman holding up Canadian skating right now, and she’s been fighting to get a second spot at Worlds for them for a while. When a country has only one skater at Worlds, that skater has to place in the top 10 to earn two spots for the next year. She has the potential to do it; but she keeps falling just a little short. Her season has been middling at best, but I’d love to see her come out and get her personal victory here.

• Some dark horses to watch: Sarina Joos (Italy) and Kimmy Repond (Switzerland). They’re up and comers, for sure. They don’t really have the tech content or the artistry points to be real players here, but this could be an opportunity to have a breakthrough moment on a big stage to set them up well for the second half of the Olympic cycle.

• Light a candle for Ekaterina Kurakova (Poland) and Josefin Taljegard (Sweden). They’re some of the best entertainers on the ice, but they’re both prone to errors that drop them in the standings. At Worlds, only the top 24 make it to the free skate. They both SHOULD be there, but they’ve got to survive the short program. I particularly hope Josefin makes it because her Elvis free skate is a delightful romp in a sea of emotional ice princess ballads. It’s like Olivia Rodrigo stomping on stage after you’ve been glazing over while watching thin-voiced singer songwriters for two hours.

Three Non-Figure Skating Things:

• Are Introvert Nooks the new She Sheds?

• This Similar Song Finder is addictive.

• I snort laughed several times while reading this list.

Helpful Links:

Competition Schedule (includes some options for viewing worldwide)

Jackie Wong’s Blog and Twitter (for actual technical analysis)

Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon’s podcast, The Runthrough, for lighter analysis from real skaters.

Up Next: Tomorrow night, I’ll be back to preview the Men’s Event. It’s basically a Jump Off. Like a Walk Off but with less facial expressions.