ICE DANCE PREVIEW: World Figure Skating Championships 2026
The ice dance competition in Prague promises to tell several different stories! One will very likely be a victory lap for the Olympic Champions, Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. With Chock and Bates not coming to Worlds (and possibly retiring soon), the biggest threat to a first World title will be Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada. However, it would be quite an upset at this point for “GuiLo” to be defeated after a dominant season and the wave of momentum off of their Olympic victory. They have kind of indicated they will be continuing after this season, so this could be the start of a new World’s dynasty.
Since recording this episode, Piper and Paul have announced they are not repeating their Starry Night program that they’ve been using all season, but instead bringing back their iconic fan-favorite program, Wuthering Heights! Regardless of medal, this alone makes the competition more interesting and speaks more to the possibility of this Worlds being the end of their competitive story.
Beyond the two Olympic medal winning teams, it would be have been easy to say that Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson from Great Britain would be the obvious bronze medal favorites a few months ago. Now, after a less than stellar Europeans and Olympic Games, the door is ever so slightly open for a few others.
Among those: US silver medalists and glow-up team of the season, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik. They were fifth at Worlds and are moving up FAST. Also in the conversation are France’s No. 2 team, Evgenia Lopereva and Geoffrey Brissaud. They are unique, technically brilliant, and chronically held in place. It would be a fantastic breakthrough for them to be on this podium. If either one of these teams end up with a medal, it could be the beginning of a new story arc for them in the next quad as podium favorites.
And don’t count out a surprise from Lithuania’s Alison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius. They have had a fantastic season and… who knows?! We’re at the end of the Olympic cycle, teams are tired, and sometimes upsets happen. Even in ice dance.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:51 Withdrawals: Who Won’t Be Competing
03:08 Fournier-Beaudry and Cizerone
04:35 Gilles and Poirier
07:34 Fear and Gibson
09:14 Zingas and Kolesnik
11:31 Lopareva and Brissaud
13:03 Reed and Ambrulevicius
14:55 Davis and Smolkin
16:18 Smart and Dieck
18:08 LaJoie and Lagha
21:04 Carreira and Ponomarenko
22:30 Turkkila and Versluis
23:48 Rest of the Field
31:34 Podium Predictions
33:05 Wrap-Up
