Kaori Sakamoto Retires on Top With Historic Fourth World Figure Skating Title in Prague

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan won her fourth world figure skating title at the 2026 World Championships in Prague on Friday, March 27, retiring from competitive skating with a personal-best total score of 238.28 (points) — Sakamoto's career-best total score in Prague. The 25-year-old delivered a free skate performance set to a medley of Edith Piaf classics, including "Je ne regrette rien," earning 158.97 points in that segment alone. The audience of 13,500 at the O2 Arena rose to their feet and sustained a standing ovation for minutes after her final step on the ice. Sakamoto had announced before the championships that she would retire after this season, and she delivered on her promise of a farewell at the highest level. She had taken the lead after the short program on Wednesday and never relinquished it, finishing nearly 10 points clear of the field. Her compatriot Mone Chiba claimed silver with 228.47 points, while Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone took bronze at 215.20 in what was described as a surprise result, given she had finished 13th at the Milan Cortina Olympics the previous month.

Sakamoto joins Kwan as four-time world champion Sakamoto becomes the first woman to win four world titles since Michelle Kwan, who claimed the last of her five world titles in 2003. Sakamoto won her first three world titles consecutively from 2022 to 2024, before being dethroned by Alysa Liu at the 2025 World Championships in Boston. With four world titles, she ranks fifth all time among women's figure skaters, tied with Lily Kronberger and Katarina Witt, according to France 24. The record for women's world titles belongs to Norwegian Sonja Henie, who won 10 titles between 1927 and 1936. Sakamoto had previously won four Olympic medals across her career — an individual silver at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, an individual bronze at the 2022 Games, and two team event silvers in 2022 and 2026 — but individual Olympic gold eluded her throughout her career. In Prague, she punched the air in delight after completing her free skate, then wiped away tears as her scores were announced. Her coaches embraced each other on the sidelines as the arena erupted. „I think it's a good idea to stop at a high point, instead of continuing for another two or three years” — Kaori Sakamoto via NOS Mone Chiba, 20, also set personal-best scores in the free skate with 150.02 points, skating to a "Romeo and Juliet" soundtrack, and embraced Sakamoto warmly after the results were confirmed.

Liu's absence and Glenn's fall reshape the medal picture Reigning Olympic and world champion Alysa Liu of the United States did not compete in Prague, having withdrawn from the competition after her gold medal performance in Milan. Liu cited the need for personal time following her Olympic success. American Amber Glenn, a three-time U.S. national champion who entered the free skate in third place, fell to sixth overall after committing a pair of jumping errors. Isabeau Levito, the 2024 world silver medalist, finished fourth, one month after a 12th-place finish in her Olympic debut. Swiss skater Livia Kaiser finished 21st with 159.58 points, 12 points below her best performance of the season, which had also come at the Milan Olympics where she also placed 21st. American ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who had won three consecutive world titles, elected not to compete in Prague after finishing just short of gold at the Milan Games.

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN): 238.28, Mone Chiba (JPN): 228.47, Nina Pinzarrone (BEL): 215.20, Isabeau Levito (USA): 0, Amber Glenn (USA): 0, Livia Kaiser (SUI): 159.58

French ice dance pair leads with personal-best rhythm dance score In the ice dance competition, also held on Friday, French Olympic champions Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry posted a personal-best score of 92.74 in the rhythm dance, skating to a programme inspired by Madonna's "Vogue," to lead the field heading into Saturday's free dance. They hold a margin of more than six points over Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who are in second place with 86.45 points. The British team of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson sit in third with 85.09 points. A victory for Cizeron would be his sixth world title, having previously won five with former partner Gabriella Papadakis between 2015 and 2022. For Fournier Beaudry, a Canadian-born skater who competes for France, a world title in Prague would be her first world medal of any kind.

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