Isabeau Levito delivers for her psyche, U.S. figure skating with world champs silver medal

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Isabeau Levito delivers for her psyche, U.S. figure skating with world champs silver medal

MONTREAL — Isabeau Levito’s first world championships medal could not have come at a better time for herself and for U.S. figure skating.

When she took the ice Friday night, Levito needed to win a medal to give the U.S. women a third spot at the 2025 World Championships in Boston.

And, after getting second in Wednesday’s short program, a medal would be the perfect way to rebuild Levito’s recently shaken confidence.

“I had two goals for this world championships, getting on the podium and securing the third spot for the American women,” she said. “I did both. It was extremely satisfying.”

It made no difference that she was a distant second to Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who became the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since Peggy Fleming of the U.S. in 1966 through 1968.

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates lead ice dance at worlds with brilliance years in the making

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates lead ice dance at worlds with brilliance years in the making

MONTREAL – There is a moment late in their rhythm dance when a moving Madison Chock leaps into Evan Bates’ arms, and he immediately spins her up into a rotational lift at his shoulder level.

It happens so smoothly and in less time than it will take you to read this paragraph, so you go back and watch over and over again to see how they can look so effortless and secure in a potentially dicey few seconds.

“Evan is very good with his coordination,” Chock said. “He’s good at catching things, throwing things. I’m in good hands. But for sure, if you’re just going to launch yourself into someone’s arms, it takes a lot of trust.”

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A dazzling skate by Deanna Stellato-Dudek. a lady of a certain age. . .(and her partner, Maxime Deschamps)

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A dazzling skate by Deanna Stellato-Dudek. a lady of a certain age. . .(and her partner, Maxime Deschamps)

MONTREAL – Pairs’ skater Deanna Stellato-Dudek is the grande dame of competitive figure skating, trying to become, at age 40, the oldest skater to win a world title in any discipline in decades.

“You know,” she said, “there’s no points in figure skating for being older.”

She and her 32-year-old partner, Maxime Deschamps, got plenty of them Wednesday with the best short program performance of their three international competition seasons together.

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Gracie Gold faces her traumatic past in stunningly candid memoir

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Gracie Gold faces her traumatic past in stunningly candid memoir

It is tempting to see Gracie Gold’s story mainly as a compelling cautionary tale about the mental health risks of a sport in which the pursuit of excellence must start when athletes still are children.

It is also tempting to see Gold’s story as sui generis, the result of a childhood, adolescence and young adulthood spent in a family whose dysfunction she describes with raw detail in the memoir, OUTOFSHAPEWORTHLESSLOSER, published Tuesday.

Seeing it as one or the other would be a simplistic reaction to a story so complex it recalls a landmark 1957 movie, “The Three Faces of Eve.”

Rather than Eve’s multiple personalities, Gold had three different personas.

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Far from heavenly, quadg0d Malinin still far ahead of U.S. rivals

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Far from heavenly, quadg0d Malinin still far ahead of U.S. rivals

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Put at least a brief hold on the apotheosis of Ilia Malinin.

For the second year in a row, the quadg0d fell far short of the heavenly in the free skate at the Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Yes, Malinin landed a beautiful quadruple Axel, a jump no one else can do, for the first time at nationals. Yes, he won the free skate, an improvement on his second place in that phase last season. Yes, Malinin tripled his winning margin of a year ago, beating ageless and quad-less Jason Brown by nearly 30 points.

Yet there was a sense of the unfulfilled when Malinin finished, a final letdown for an event where the winners in each of the four disciplines had notably flawed free skates. The sizeable, enthusiastic crowds at Nationwide Arena deserved more.

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