PRAGUE (AP) — Kaori Sakamoto bid farewell to figure skating with a fourth world championship title before retirement as one of the most decorated skaters in decades.
Sakamoto took to the ice to cheers from a packed arena in Prague and delivered a typically artistic and consistent final free skate to stay ahead of her Japanese teammate Mone Chiba.
After signing off to Edith Piaf's “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” Sakamoto made a double fist pump as her coaches
hugged rink-side and Chiba stood to applaud.
Minutes later, Sakamoto jumped up and danced in celebration at leaving on a personal-best total 238.28 points and embraced Chiba, who scored 228.47. “I'm so happy,” Sakamoto said to whoops from the crowd. “I'm grateful that I get to skate here."
Nina Pinzarrone took a surprise bronze on 215.20, a breakthrough moment after years of being overshadowed by her Belgian teammate, 2022 world silver medalist Loena Hendrickx.
Sakamoto broke through with individual bronze at the 2022 Olympics and won the first of three world titles in a row — a feat not seen in women's skating since the 1960s — soon after.
Sakamoto never won Olympic gold but leaves with four career Olympic medals including team and individual silvers from the Milan Cortina Olympics. She plans to become a coach.
Isabeau Levito was fourth for the United States and three-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn was still waiting for a first world medal in sixth after popping two jumps. Glenn had been third after the short program and started her free skate with a huge triple axel, but halfway through, a triple loop became a single, and then a double axel went missing too, leaving valuable points on the ice. “I lost my focus,” she said.
A Japanese podium sweep had seemed possible before the championships but Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai was only ninth after errors in both programs.
Alysa Liu withdrew from the world championships as she negotiates her rise to fame after winning the Olympic gold last month.
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France improved their rhythm dance to take a commanding lead in the ice dance.
The crowd in O2 Arena was applauding the Olympic champions before the start of their unrivaled dance to music by Madonna, and they delighted the spectators from the opening twizzle sequence to a rotational lift at the end.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron hugged after seeing their personal-best score of 92.74 points, which was better than the 90.18 they received for their rhythm dance at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
“It′s our first world championships together so we really wanted to have fun and we really enjoyed the crowd,” Fournier Beaudry said. “They were exchanging energy with us and it just reminds us why we do it, we wouldn′t be there without them. It′s just a very, very nice moment for us.”
Olympic bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada were a distant second with 86.45 heading to Saturday′s free dance.
Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, third at last year's worlds, were third again with 85.09.
U.S. pair Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, fifth at the Olympics, were lying fourth, and teammates Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were seventh.
At the Olympics, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron narrowly beat U.S. stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates to the gold in a result that sparked a furore over judging.
Chock and Bates decided not to pursue a fourth straight ice dance world championship, joining Olympic teammate Alysa Liu in withdrawing from the worlds, a common decision for skaters who compete at the Winter Games.
Cizeron said the skaters were not under as much pressure in Prague as they were in Milan, which helped their performance.
“What′s really fun of this championships is that, I think I can speak for everyone, we feel it′s more like a show and we're little bit less stressed maybe than at the Olympics," he said. “That extra magic from the crowd allows us to perform to our best.”
The French couple was created this season when Fournier Beaudry, who previously skated for Canada, was left without a partner after Nikolaj Sorensen faced allegations of sexual maltreatment. Fournier Beaudry teamed with multiple world champion Cizeron, who retired after winning the 2022 Olympics with Gabriella Papadakis.
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AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth contributed to this report.
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