Who to watch at the figure skating world championships

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The World Figure Skating Championships are always a big deal. And this year's edition, starting Wednesday in Boston, carries more weight than usual.

In addition to deciding this season's world champions (and silver and bronze medallists), the next five days of competition will determine how many entries each country receives for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

We'll get into how that works later. But first, let's look at who to watch.

Canadians to watch

Last year in Montreal, the pairs team of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps thrilled the adoring crowd by capturing Canada's first figure skating world title since 2018, while ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned a silver for their third worlds medal in four years.

These two duos remain Canada's top medal contenders this week in Boston, and that will likely be the case for the Olympics too.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps started this season strong, winning both of their Grand Prix assignments in the fall. More good news came in December when the Chicago-born Stellato-Dudek finally became a Canadian citizen, clearing the way for the Montreal resident to compete for Canada at the Olympics (citizenship requirements for other international skating events are less stringent).

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But health issues have dogged them since then. A Deschamps illness forced them out of the Grand Prix Final in December, and their preparations for last month's Four Continents championships were affected when