2022 World Figure Skating Championships

The 2022 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 21 to 27, 2022, at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier, France. Sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), the World Championships are considered the most prestigious event in figure skating. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The competition determined the entry quotas for each skating federation at the 2023 World Championships. Shoma Uno and Kaori Sakamoto, both of Japan, won the men's and women's events, respectively. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States won the pairs event, and Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the ice dance event.

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 and Brandon Frazier
Ice dance: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron
Navigation
Previous: 2021 World Championships
Next: 2023 World Championships

Background

The World Figure Skating Championships are considered the most prestigious event in figure skating. The 2022 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 21 to 27, 2022, at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier, France. The 2022 World Championships were notable for a number of absences following the 2022 Winter Olympics. Reigning World and Olympic champion Nathan Chen of the United States and two-time World and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan bowed out, citing injuries. Additionally, the Chinese Skating Association opted not to send any skaters to the competition.

Ban of Russian and Belarusian figure skaters

In 2016, an independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed allegations that the Russian Olympic team had been involved in a state-sponsored doping program, active from at least late 2011 through August, 2015. On December 9, 2019, the WADA banned Russia from all international competitions after it found that data provided by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency had been manipulated by Russian authorities in order to protect athletes involved in its state-sponsored doping scheme. Under the ban imposed by the Court 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. On February 19, 2022, Anna Shcherbakova stated her intention to compete at the World Championships after winning the Olympic gold medal.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nathalie Péchalat, then-president of the French 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 the International 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. On March 1, 2022, the ISU banned all Russian and Belarusian skaters from participating in any international skating events. These World Championships became the first major sporting event around the world, excluding the 2022 Winter Paralympics, to proceed with a Russian and Belarusian ban.

Qualification

The number of entries from each nation for the 2022 World Championships was based on the results of the 2021 World Championships. These nations were eligible to enter more than one skater or team in the indicated disciplines.

Number of entries per discipline

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

Changes to preliminary entries

The International Skating Union published the initial list of entrants on March 2, 2022.

Changes to preliminary entries

Date	Discipline	Withdrew	Added	Reason	Ref.
March 1	Men	Yuzuru Hanyu	Kao Miura	Injury
March 2	Women	—	Loena Hendrickx	Error by the Belgian Figure Skating Federation
	Pairs	Kirsten Moore-Towers Michael Marinaro	Evelyn Walsh Trennt Michaud	Personal reasons (Moore-Towers)
March 3	Men	Larry Loupolover	—
	Ice dance	Natalia Kaliszek Maksym Spodyriev	Anastasia Polibina Pavel Golovishnikov	Positive COVID-19 test
March 8	Men	Georgii Reshtenko	—	Chose to focus on the 2022 World Junior Championships
March 12	Pairs	Anastasiia Metelkina Daniil Parkman	Karina Safina Luka Berulava	—
	Ice dance	Mariia Nosovitskaya Mikhail Nosovitskiy	Shira Ichilov Volodymyr Byelikov
March 13	Men	Slavik Hayrapetyan	—	Injury
March 14	Women	Anastasiia Shabotova		Expulsion from Ukrainian national team
	Pairs	Jelizaveta Žuková Martin Bidař		Injury (Žuková)
March 16	Men	Nathan Chen	Camden Pulkinen	Injury
March 17		Kao Miura	Kazuki Tomono
	Women	Kim Ye-lim	Lee Hae-in	Positive COVID-19 test
March 21	Men	Mikhail Shaidorov	—	Denied visa by the French embassy
		Lukas Britschgi		Positive COVID-19 test
	Ice dance	Jennifer Janse van Rensburg Benjamin Steffan		Positive COVID-19 test (Steffan)
March 22	Pairs	Anastasia Golubeva Hektor Giotopoulos Moore		—
		Sara Conti Niccolò Macii		Positive COVID-19 test (Macii)
		Rebecca Ghilardi Filippo Ambrosini		Positive COVID-19 test (Ghilardi)

Required performance elements

Single skating

Women competing in single skating first performed their short programs on Wednesday, March 23, while men performed theirs on Thursday, March 24. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds, the short program had to include the following elements:

For men: one double or triple Axel; one triple or quadruple jump; one jump combination consisting of a double jump and a triple jump, two triple jumps, or a quadruple jump and a double jump or triple jump; one flying spin; one camel spin or sit spin with a change of foot; one spin combination with a change of foot; and a step sequence using the full ice surface.

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; one layback 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.

The top 24 skaters after completion of the short program component of the competition moved on to the free skating component. Women performed their free skates on Friday, March 25; men performed theirs on Saturday, March 26. The free skate performance for both men and women could last no more than 4 minutes, 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 a choreographic sequence.

Pair skating

Couples competing in pair skating performed their short programs on Wednesday, March 23. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds, it had to include the following elements: one pair lift, one twist lift, one double or triple throw jump, one double or triple solo jump, one solo spin combination with a change of foot, one death spiral, and a step sequence using the full ice surface.

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. The free skate performance could last no more than 4 minutes, 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; one pair spin combination; one death spiral; and a choreographic sequence.

Ice dance

Couples competing in ice dance performed their rhythm dances on Friday, March 25. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 50 seconds, 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), and blues. The required pattern dance element was the Midnight Blues. The rhythm dance had to include the following elements: the pattern dance, the pattern dance step sequence, one dance lift, one set of sequential twizzles, and one step sequence.

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

Judging

For the 2021–2022 season, all of the technical elements in any figure skating performance – such as jumps, spins, and lifts – 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. The judging panel's Grade of Execution (GOE) was determined by calculating the trimmed 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. 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. 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.

Program component factoring

Discipline	Short program or Rhythm dance	Free skate or Free dance
Men	1.00	2.00
Women	0.80	1.60
Pairs	0.80	1.60
Ice dance	0.80	1.20

Deductions were applied for certain violations like time infractions, stops and restarts, or falls. 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.

Medal summary

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