


SHADOW ERA WORLD CHAMPION PLUS
qualified two women’s spots for next year’s worlds rather than the maximum three because the top two Americans’ results added up to more than 13 (Levito’s fourth plus Glenn’s 12th equaled 16). They had been 10th and eighth, respectively, in the short program. “I feel very proud for myself and grateful for my coaching team for helping me get this far so far in my skating career, and I’m just very proud to be where I am,” Levito said on USA Network.Īmerican Amber Glenn was 12th in her world debut. Sasha Cohen, to whom Levito is often compared, also placed fourth in her Olympic and world debuts in 2002. woman in her senior global championships debut (Olympics and worlds) since Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan took silver and bronze at the 1991 Worlds. Levito entered worlds ranked fourth in the field by best score this season. “But I’m pretty happy with myself for just trying to move past it and focusing on making the most out of the rest of the program.” “I am severely disappointed because I’ve been nailing my Lutz-loop for a really long time, and this is the first time I’ve messed it up in a while, and of course it had to be when it actually counted,” Levito said, according to the ISU. The Lutz was planned to be the first half of a combination with a triple loop.
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Levito, last year’s world junior champion, had a chance to become the youngest senior world medalist since 2014.Īfter a solid short program, she fell on her opening triple Lutz in the free skate and left points on the table by performing two jump combinations rather than three.

Hendrickx followed her silver from last year, when she became the first Belgian women’s singles skater to win a world medal.įIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule Lee, who had the top free skate, became the second South Korean to win a world medal in any discipline after six-time medalist Yuna Kim. So I want to practice even harder, and I want to make sure to do clean, perfect performances at every competition.” “Because I have this feeling of regret at the biggest event of the season, I want to make sure I don’t have this feeling next season. “But I was able to refocus and do my best till the end. “I feel so pathetic and thought, what was all that hard work I put into my training?” Sakamoto said of her mistake, according to the International Skating Union (ISU). She can be thankful for pulling off the second jump of that planned combination - a triple toe loop - and her 5.62-point lead from Wednesday’s short program. She appeared en route to an easier victory until singling a planned triple flip late in her free skate, which put the gold in doubt. Sakamoto is the oldest women’s singles world champion since Mao Asada (2014), who is now the only Japanese skater with more world titles than Sakamoto. Sakamoto, 22, totaled 224.61 points on home ice in Saitama to prevail by 3.67 over Lee Hae-In of South Korea in the closest women’s finish at worlds since 2011.īelgium’s Loena Hendrickx took bronze, edging 16-year-old American Isabeau Levito for a medal by 2.77 points. Kaori Sakamoto overcame a late error in her free skate to become the first Japanese figure skater to win back-to-back world titles and the oldest women’s world champion since 2014.
