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What to know for the figure skating world championships

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The 2023 figure skating world championships begin tonight (in Canadian time) in Japan. Three big things to know: Russians remain banned due to the invasion of Ukraine, an American phenom and a Japanese star will duke it out for the men's title, and Canada has a good chance to end its five-year gold-medal drought.

Here are the details on those main storylines and some other key info about the biggest event of the figure skating season:

The sport's most dominant country is absent again.

The last time a major figure skating event was open to the entire world, Russia topped the 2022 Winter Olympic standings with six medals and two gold. The country looked poised to dominate last year's world championships too, before the invasion of Ukraine triggered a widespread ban from international sports that also caused Russian skaters to miss the entire 2022-23 Grand Prix season and, now, their second straight worlds.

Their absence will be felt most in the women's event, where Russians swept the podium at the 2021 worlds and may have done the same at last year's Olympics had young title favourite Kamila Valieva not melted down amid a doping controversy and finished fourth. Earlier this year, the 16-year-old was cleared of wrongdoing by Russian authorities — a suspicious ruling that has since been appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. If the Court of Arbitration for Sport decides in WADA's favour, Russia could be stripped of its victory in the Olympic team event and Canada upgraded from fourth place to a bronze medal.

The Quad God takes on the defending champ for men's gold.

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