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The Best Short Program Skaters In The World

Header for historical data on short program winners at the World Figure Skating Championships

Compulsory connected program, original program, technical program... The short program has had many names since it was first introduced by the ISU for pairs at the World Championships in 1964. The short program for singles was first contested at the World Championships nearly a decade later in 1973.

In the first two blogs in this series on The Best Short Program skaters we looked at all of the winners of the short program at the European, Canadian and U.S. Championships. Today we'll take a quick look at the winners of the short program at the World Championships each year... and some interesting takeaways. One note: a '*' denotes that a skater or couple also won the overall title that year.

Year

Men's

Women's

Pairs

1964

(none)

(none)

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov

1965

(none)

(none)

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov*

1966

(none)

(none)

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov*

1967

(none)

(none)

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov*

1968

(none)

(none)

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov*

1969

(none)

(none)

Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov*

1970

(none)

(none)

Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov*

1971

(none)

(none)

Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov*

1972

(none)

(none)

Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov*

1973

Toller Cranston

Karen Magnussen*

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1974

Toller Cranston

Christine Errath*

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1975

Yuri Ovchinnikov

Dianne de Leeuw*

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1976

Toller Cranston

Dorothy Hamill*

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1977

Jan Hoffmann

Linda Fratianne*

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1978

Jan Hoffmann

Linda Fratianne

Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev*

1979

Vladimir Kovalev*

Linda Fratianne*

Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner*

1980

Robin Cousins

Denise Biellmann

Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakrai*

1981

Scott Hamilton*

Katarina Witt

Irina Vorobieva and Igor Livoski*

1982

Scott Hamilton*

Katarina Witt

Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach*

1983

Scott Hamilton*

Katarina Witt

Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach

1984

Scott Hamilton*

Katarina Witt*

Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev

1985

Alexandr Fadeev*

Katarina Witt*

Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov

1986

Brian Orser

Debi Thomas*

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov*

1987

Brian Orser*

Katarina Witt*

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov*

1988

Brian Boitano*

Debi Thomas

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov

1989

Kurt Browning*

Midori Ito*

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov*

1990

Viktor Petrenko

Midori Ito

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov*

1991

Viktor Petrenko

Kristi Yamaguchi*

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler

1992

Viktor Petrenko*

Kristi Yamaguchi*

Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev*

1993

Kurt Browning*

Nancy Kerrigan

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler*

1994

Elvis Stojko*

Yuka Sato*

Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov*

1995

Todd Eldredge

Nicole Bobek

Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný*

1996

Ilia Kulik

Michelle Kwan*

Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer

1997

Alexei Urmanov

Tara Lipinski*

Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer*

1998

Alexei Yagudin*

Michelle Kwan*

Jenni Meno and Todd Sand

1999

Evgeni Plushenko

Maria Butyrskaya*

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze*

2000

Alexei Yagudin*

Maria Butyrskaya

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao

2001

Evgeni Plushenko*

Irina Slutskaya

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze

2002

Alexei Yagudin*

Irina Slutskaya*

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao*

2003

Evgeni Plushenko*

Michelle Kwan*

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin

2004

Evgeni Plushenko*

Sasha Cohen

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin*

2005

Stéphane Lambiel*

Irina Slutskaya*

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin*

2006

Brian Joubert

Sasha Cohen

Dan and Hao Zhang

2007

Brian Joubert*

Yuna Kim

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao*

2008

Jeffrey Buttle*

Carolina Kostner

Dan and Hao Zhang

2009

Brian Joubert

Yuna Kim*

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy*

2010

Daisuke Takahashi*

Mirai Nagasu

Qing Pang and Jian Tong

2011

Patrick Chan*

Yuna Kim

Qing Pang and Jian Tong

2012

Patrick Chan*

Alena Leonova

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy*

2013

Patrick Chan*

Yuna Kim*

Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov*

2014

Tatsuki Machida

Mao Asada*

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy*

2015

Yuzuru Hanyu

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva*

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford*

2016

Yuzuru Hanyu

Gracie Gold

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han

2017

Javier Fernández

Evgenia Medvedeva*

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han*

2018

Nathan Chen*

Carolina Kostner

Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot*

2019

Nathan Chen*

Alina Zagitova*

Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov

2021

Yuzuru Hanyu

Anna Shcherbakova*

Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii

So many fascinating things to take from this! Bearing in mind there were other events at the World Championships over the years - school figures and qualifying rounds - the short program winners more often than not succeeded in taking the World title. In fact, only twice in history have all three of the short program winners not won an overall title – 2006 and 2016.


Frau Jutta Müller and Katarina Witt
Frau Jutta Müller and Katarina Witt. Photo courtesy Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig.

The first six years the men's short program was held at the World Championships, it wasn't won by the overall winner. Katarina Witt would have won six World titles had it been based on the short program alone.


Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov's short program at the 1989 World Championships in Paris. Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd.

Soviet pairs hold the record for the biggest streak of short program wins at the World Championships from one country – fifteen years in a row! The first five of those wins were by Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov; the final ten by Irina Rodnina and her partners Alexei Ulanov and Aleksandr Zaitsev. Another dominant Soviet pair, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, won the short program at every World Championships they entered.


Canadian Figure Skating Champion Toller Cranston
Toller Cranston. Photo courtesy "Maclean's" magazine.

Then there were the unlucky ones! Canada's Toller Cranston holds the record for being the skater to win to the short program at the Worlds the most times (three) but never take an overall title. Alexei Urmanov is the only short program winner in the history of the World Championships to withdraw prior to the free skate.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on FacebookTwitterPinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.