Boston’s World Figure Skating Championships will play a key role in shaping the 2026 Winter Olympics – The Boston Globe

It was that enthusiasm that made International Skating Union and U.S. Figure Skating officials want to bring the championships back to Boston in 2025. At the TD Garden on Thursday, Wagner joined 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton and current world champion Ilia Malinin to mark the start of single-session ticket sales for the event, which begin Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.

“That response at worlds is why I moved to Boston,” said Wagner, who now lives with her family on Nantucket.

While every year’s World Championships are important, the 2025 edition is particularly so. The 300 athletes expected to participate will be seeking to secure their nation’s spots for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy. In each discipline (men, women, pairs and ice dance), if a nation’s top two skaters or teams placements combined equal 13 or less, the nation receives the maximum three spots in that discipline.

“Boston is truly the first step to Milan,” said US Figure Skating president Sam Auxier.

Being one of the last major events before the 2026 Olympics, the 2025 World Championships also are important for purposes of momentum. Hamilton recalled that while he had won two world titles heading into the 1983 World Championships, it was his title that year that truly made him believe he could win gold at the 1984 Games.

“It was a situation where once I won in 1983, it felt like the Olympic gold medal was mine to lose,” said Hamilton.

Malinin will be looking to repeat after winning his world title in March in Montreal. Having made history in 2022 at Skate America, an international invitational held at The Skating Club of Boston, by landing the first quadruple axel at a major international event, he is looking forward to skating in front of the area’s audiences again.

“Here in Boston, they are really great fans of sports,” said Malinin. “They really get energetic and almost chaotic in a way, and it really helps us to feel that energy and how excited they are to see us skate.”

The World Championships are expected to bring a $40 million boost to the Boston economy, with 12,000 hotel room nights expected to be reserved between fans, skaters, coaches, volunteers, and media. Internationally, Boston is considered one of the sport’s hubs, and skaters were excited to hear of the event’s return to the area after a mere nine years, which is rare for the World Championships.

“It is rare for a city to host twice in such a short amount of time,” said Doug Zeghibe, executive director of The Skating Club of Boston, which is the host of the event. “The audience made 2016 a standout success.”

Kat Cornetta can be reached at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.