The Best Short Program Skaters In The World

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. 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.

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 Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest 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.