PRAGUE (CZECHIA) March 26, 2026 – The 2026 ISU Figure Skating World Championships were back in action at O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia on Thursday with the men’s short program and pairs free program segments.

After their personal best performance in yesterday’s short program, Lia Pereira (Milton, Ont.) and Trennt Michaud (Trenton, Ont.) are officially bronze medallists.

“I think it’s a little hard to describe right now,” said Pereira after their skate. “The rollercoaster of emotions before we step on the ice and then while we’re on the ice and throughout the program, we’re just really proud of how we handled all of it. We skated our hearts out there and left it all out there and I think that was shown.”

The pair delivered yet another personal best skate on Thursday, scoring 140.57 for their free program. With an overall score of 216.09, the pair has also surpassed the personal best total score they set at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

Taking home the gold, Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin finished first overall with a total of 228.33 points. Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava placed second, earning silver with 218.41 points.

Kelly-Ann Laurin (St-Jérôme, Que.) and Loucas Éthier (Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby, Que.) placed 19th overall with 167.75 points, after a disappointing result (103.76) in the free program.

“It was kind of unexpected to be honest,” said Éthier. “Practices have been going super well, here and at home. The short program went well yesterday, we were super confident coming into today, we felt calm. It’s hard to tell what happened, but we’ve been skating together for really long, so we can feel each other out and I just think one mistake kind of led to the other and it kind of accumulated and started playing in our head.”

In men’s singles, Stephen Gogolev (Toronto, Ont.) came into this week’s competition looking to build off the momentum of his stellar performance at the Milano Cortina Games, where he placed fifth overall.

He placed fifth in Thursday’s short program segment with 94.38 points, beating the personal best he set last month at the Milano Cortina Olympic Games.

“I feel great,” Gogolev said. “I was pretty comfortable going into this competition and thankfully I was able to perform the way I wanted to.”

With this performance Gogolev moves on to compete in the free program segment, scheduled to take place on Saturday. Leading the category, USA’s Ilia Malinin currently sits in first place with 111.29 points. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa (101.85) and Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko (96.49) sit in second and third place, respectively.

Tomorrow, Madeline Schizas (Oakville, Ont.) will take to the ice for the women’s free program, while ice dance will also get underway starting with the rhythm dance segment.

For complete results, please click here.