Isabeau Levito digs out final piece of U.S. gold rush at World Junior skating

One after another, the final four skaters in the women’s free skate at the World Junior Championships performed with assurance and compelling quality, brightening the end of a long and muddled figure skating season.

All did clean programs, the best by surprising Jia Shin of South Korea, who won the free and nearly upset favored Isabeau Levito of the United States for the title Sunday in Tallinn, Estonia.

Levito, gritting her way through the free and getting some benefit of the doubt from the judges, held on by just 0.54 points to become the first U.S. woman atop the world junior podium since Rachael Flatt in 2008. Compatriot Lindsay Thorngren earned the bronze.

Levito’s gold medal, following those in ice dance by brother-sister team Oona and Gage Brown and in men’s singles by Ilia Malinin, gave Team USA three of the four world junior titles for the first time since 2008.

“We put in all the work in our training, so when we get to the competition, we’re really just collecting our scores and our medals,” Levito said. “Our medal is just a reflection on our training and how we did with our nerves.”

She totaled 206.55 to 206.01 for Shin and 199.42 for Thorngren.

The strong U.S. showing came in a season beset again by Covid complications – the world juniors were cancelled in 2021 and moved and postponed five weeks this year because of the pandemic. This season was further disarrayed by things Russian, first a still unresolved doping case revealed during the Olympics and then bans on Russian skaters after their country’s unprovoked and ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Russian women had won the previous four world junior titles and nine of the previous 10. The most recent Russian winner (2020) was Kamila Valieva, who had been the