The pairs competition at the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships will be missing some of the top competitors from Milano Cortina — including Olympic Champions Riku Miura and Ruche Kihara. Olympic silver medalists, Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, have the advantage of momentum being on their side to take their first World title in Prague, but several other extremely talented teams are standing in their way.

Most notably, the German pair of Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin are fresh from earning bronze at the Olympic Games and were first after the short program in Milan. They are more than capable of taking their first World title here, but will likely need a very strong free skate to beat the Georgians.

Also in the running for a Worlds medal will be Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary. They are the season's most improved pair and have taken big steps forward. Making their first World podium is definitely within their grasp.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro 00:00:38 Withdrawals: Who WON'T Be There 00:06:17 Metelkina and Berulava 00:08:57 Hase and Volodin 00:11:04 Pavlova and Svietchenko 00:13:10 Efimova and Mitrofanov 00:15:37 Nagaoka and Moriguchi 00:18:20 Chan and Howe 00:19:26 Pereira and Michaud 00:21:38 Other notable teams competing here 00:25:50 Podium Predictions 00:27:29 Wrap-Up