'Quad God' Headlines ISU World Figure Skating Championships Day 2 Results After Short Program

With all eyes on Ilia Malinin at the 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechia, following his disappointing individual showing at the Olympics, the Quad God delivered Thursday.

Malinin turned in a dazzling performance in the men's short program and built himself a lead of almost 10 points ahead of Saturday's free skate. 

Here is a look at the top 10:

1. Ilia Malinin (USA) - 111.29
2. Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) - 101.85
3. Aleksandr Selevko (EST) - 96.49
4. Sato Shun (JPN) - 95.84
5. Stephen Gogolev (CAN) - 94.38
6. Kagiyama Yuma (JPN) - 93.80
7. Andrew Torgashev (USA) - 89.07
8. Daniel Grassl (ITA) - 88.53
9. Lukas Britschgi (SUI) - 88.30
10. Jacob Sanchez (USA) - 85.15

While Adam Siao Him Fa of France impressed with a quad toe loop and Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia turned in a notable performance to round out the top three, the story was Malinin.

He is widely considered the best men's figure skater in the world and entered this event as a defending two-time world champion, but he finished in eighth place in the men's competition at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.

That eighth place finish was the direct result of a disappointing free skate showing, as he held the lead after the short program.

However, he bounced back in head-turning fashion Thursday with a personal-best 111.29 short program score after unleashing a performance that included quad flip and a combination of quad lutz and a triple toe loop.

"It was a very supportive, very energetic crowd," Malinin said, per Karel Janicek of the Associated Press. "I felt every single piece of love and support from everyone out there. Just going on that ice I had no expectations. I really just wanted to embrace the environment and experience the figure skating, and that's all I really thought about the whole program."

If he skates anywhere close to what he did Thursday when he returns to the ice Saturday, he will once again be a world champion.

Quad God was the headliner of Thursday's action, but the world championship was decided in the pairs competition.

Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took home the title with a brilliant free skate performance after entering the second leg of the competition with a narrow lead over Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia.

Here is a look at the top 10 finishers with the free skating scores in parentheses:

1. Minerva Fabienne Hase / Nikita Volodin (GER) - 228.33 (148.55)
2. Anastasiia Metelkina / Luka Berulava (GEO) - 218.41 (138.96)
3. Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud (CAN) - 216.09 (140.57)
4. Nagaoka Yuna / Moriguchi Sumitada (JPN) - 209.13 (139.58)
5. Maria Pavlova / Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) - 205.08 (135.16)
6. Alisa Efimova / Misha Mitrofanov (USA) - 202.51 (135.22)
7. Annika Hocke / Robert Kunkel (GER) - 194.11 (128.76)
8. Karina Akopova / Nikita Rakhmanin (ARM) - 190.46 (123.34)
9. Zhang Jiaxuan / Huang Yihang (CHN) - 184.90 (122.21)
10. Oxana Vuillermoz / Tom Bouvart (SUI) - 184.56 (124.44)

Hase and Volodin captured bronze in the 2026 Games despite leading after the short program but made sure a similar drop didn't happen Thursday.

In doing so, they gave Germany its first figure skating world championship since 2018.