PRAGUE (CZECHIA) March 25, 2026 – The 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships are well under way after the first official day of competition opened on Wednesday at O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia.

First up, the women’s short program, in which national champion Madeline Schizas (Oakville, Ont.) finished 15th with a score of 61.35 points, qualifying her for the free program scheduled to take place on Friday.

“I’m happy with my performance,” Schizas said after her skate. “I think there’s always more to give, but I was happy that I was able to redeem myself a little bit from the Olympics.”

Currently sitting atop the podium are Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto (79.31) in first place, and Mone Chiba (78.45) in second place. USA’s Amber Glenn sits in third place with 72.65 points.

In the pairs short program, newly crowned national champions Lia Pereira (Milton, Ont.) and Trennt Michaud (Trenton, Ont.) put out a personal best performance, scoring 75.52 points and breaking the record they set for themselves at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games just a few weeks prior.

“We learn from every competition we’ve done,” said Pereira after their skate. “This is our fourth World Championships and it still feels like the first one sometimes because we still feel the nerves and we want to perform our best, but we’ve really put in the training this season and we really showed that in our results. We’re very proud to continuously put out good skates.”

Pereira and Michaud find themselves in third place, behind Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (79.78) in first and Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (79.45) in second.

National bronze medallists Kelly Ann Laurin (St-Jérôme, Que.) and Loucas Éthier (Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby, Que.) scored 63.99 points for their performance, finishing 12th overall.

“We felt really confident,” said Éthier. “It was a really good skate. I was excited to get back out there and kind of get that momentum going again [after the Four Continents Championships] and I think we did that very well for tomorrow.”

Both pairs will compete in the free program segment tomorrow evening, with Pereira and Michaud vying for a podium finish. For complete results, please click here.