World Figure Skating Championships Boston 2016

The 2016 World Figure Skating Championships took place in Boston between March 28 and April 3.  

Four events take place at every World Figure Skating Championships: Pairs Skating, Men's Singles, Ice Dancing, and Ladies' Singles.

The expected winner of the Ladies' Singles competition, American Gracie Gold, failed to earn a medal after an early fall. But Americans broke their long streak of being shut out at this tournament with Ashley Wagner winning the silver medal in the ladies' competition and American ice dancing teams taking silver and bronze.

Skating fans and followers predicted that if Gold could skate a flawless program, that a medal was within her reach. Gold did skate a beautiful and clean short program and placed first after the "short," but did not skate well in the free skate. She fell on her opening jump and the rest of the program included errors. 

Wagner, on the other hand, gave what many called the performance of her life. The 24-year-old moved from fourth place after the short program into second place and won the silver medal. Hers was the first medal win for the U.S. in ladies figure skating since Kimmie Meissner won gold at the 2006 World Figure Skating Championships.

Sixteen-year-old Russian skater Yevgenia Medvedeva, who won the world junior title in 2015, broke records with her final score and became the first ever singles skater to win junior world and senior world figure skating titles back-to-back.

1. Evgenia Medvedeva - Russia  
2. Ashley Wagner - USA
3. Anna Pogorilaya - Russia
4. Gracie Gold - USA
5. Satoko Miyahara - Japan

• World Figure Skating Championships 2016 Ladies Entries and Final Results

Champion Javier Fernandez defended his title and beat 2014 champion Yuzuru Hanyu again. American figure skaters Adam Rippon, Max Aaron, and Grant Hochstein skated well in their free programs but did not place in the top five.

It seemed that every male figure skater included quadruple jumps in their programs, with only a handful avoiding the soon-to-be-ubiquitous quad. 

1.  Javier Fernandez - Spain
2.  Yuzuru Hanyu - Japan
3. Boyang Jin - China
4. Mikhail Kolyada - Russia
5. Patrick Chan - Canada

• World Figure Skating Championships 2016 Men's Entries and Final Results

The American sibling ice dance team of Maia and Alex Shibutani had a great 2016 season winning both the U.S. national ice dance title and the 2016 Four Continents title. But in Boston, the duo was unable to overtake 2015 world ice dancing champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the bronze medal.

1.  Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron - France
2.  Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani - USA
3.  Madison Chock and Evan Bates - USA
4.  Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte - Italy
5.  Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje - Canada

• World Figure Skating Championships 2016 Ice Dance Entries and Final Results

Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford successfully defended their title, with personal best free skate and total scores. They beat the Chinese pair team Sui Wenjing and Han Cong who had been in first place after the short program.  The new German pair team of Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot won bronze.

1. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford - Canada
2.  Wenjiing Sui and Cong Han - China
3.  Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot - Germany
4.  Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov -  Russia
5.  Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov - Russia

• World Figure Skating Championships 2016 Pairs Entries and Final Results