Is One The Loneliest Number? Ice Cold Facts About Skating First

"Skating No. 1 is disasterville. The judges tend to be conservative because there might be 20 skaters to go." - Olympic and World judge Dorothy Leamen, "The Ottawa Citizen", February 15, 1980

On a chilly February day in 1968 in Grenoble, France, a huddled mass of skaters and officials gathered in a room and by country, alphabetically drew numbers to determine their starting order for the women's school figures at the Winter Olympic Games. Thirty-one skaters drew their positions and only one number remained in the hat. By a process of elimination, the last skater to draw a slip, Galina Grzhibovskaya of the Soviet Union, was left with the dreaded starting position. Galina placed a dismal twenty-fifth out thirty-two women in the figures in those Games.

For many decades, there has been a negative perception surrounding being the first to skate in a competition, but this wasn't always in the case. In figure skating's early days, when competitions were held outdoors, many skaters were overjoyed when drawing lots resulted an earlier position in the starting order if Mother Nature wasn't being particularly benevolent. No one wanted to stand around for an hour waiting for their turn to perform in minus thirty degree weather, nor did they particularly relish the thought of risking a change in the weather. Many competitions that began with a light snowfall ended in a blizzard, and as weather conditions deteriorated, so too did the ice in the days before Zamboni's. The time of day even played a factor. Some competitions began at dusk and didn't conclude until the wee hours of the morning. If you skated last, chances are the exhausted judges would have a pretty hard time seeing the spectacular double Salchow you landed in the pitch dark.

ISU regulations pertaining to starting order, 1933

Though there were some skaters who drew the starting position in international competitions prior to 1935 who were far from pleased with it - Sonja Henie among them - it really wasn't until just before World War II broke out, three years after the Open Marking System was introduced, that skaters really began grumbling about drawing the number one. Though judges had already been forbidden from changing their marks after they'd recorded them, there was no real way of policing this until judges were required to display their marks on placards immediately following each performance. If a judge really wanted to go back and give higher marks to the first skater under the Closed Marking System, all they had to do was sneak a eraser from their jacket pocket when the referee wasn't looking.

Under the 6.0 system, the first skater to perform was highly unlikely to be given perfect marks by any judge worth their salt, no matter who they were, because of base marking and the desire to leave room for the skaters that followed. Though the marks themselves didn't really matter as much as the ordinals, skaters shuddered at drawing the starting position because they believed (often correctly) that twenty skaters later, their efforts would be overshadowed by someone else in the judge's eyes. 

The ISU's rules surrounding starting orders in 1948, reproduced in T.D. Richardson's book "The Complete Figure Skater"

The ISU tinkered with its rules surrounding starting orders in the forties and fifties numerous times in an effort to address the inherent problems, first implementing a system whereby skaters were placed in groups based on results in school figures and compulsory dances, then reverting to a random draw, reinstituting modified seeded draws, then scrapping them again. At the 1972 World Championships in Calgary, a rotating start order was tried for the first time in the ice dance event.  Another interesting first took place at a Canadian-hosted Worlds in 1984, when the organizers in Ottawa used colour computer graphics to illustrate the starting orders for the first time at an ISU Championship.

An explanation of how starting orders worked from the program of the 1978 World Championships

The belief that skating first is a death sentence has been disproven a handful of times over the years. The very first time figure skating was included in the Olympic Games in 1908, Ulrich Salchow was the first skater and the eventual winner of the men's event. Tenley Albright and Katarina Witt drew the starting positions in the figures when they won Olympic gold medals in 1956 and 1988. Two-time Olympic Gold Medallists Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov were the first to skate the compulsory connected (short) program at the 1968 Games.

Tenley Albright. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library.r

However, chalking the negative connotation of skating first down to superstition is equally misguided. Earlier skaters have not only been at a psychological disadvantage, but often performed in half-empty arenas. Anyone who has ever skated competitively (or appeared in front of an audience in any capacity, for that matter) can attest to the differences between performing in front of a small, indifferent crowd as opposed to a large, supportive one.

When the IJS system was first being rolled out in 2003, an article in "The Province" claimed:

"OLD: Starting order may have had negative consequences.

NEW: Starting order has no negative consequence.

OLD: Skaters could not win from a lower position without help from another.

NEW: Skaters can win from a lower position after the short program by their own ability."

If this was a goal of the IJS system, it certainly rarely delivered. Under the 6.0 system, there were at least a dozen examples of skaters drawing the starting position and winning gold medals at the World Championships. Since the IJS system was first used at the World Championships in 2005, a grand total of - wait for it! - zero skaters have drawn the starting position in any phase of any competition at the Worlds and won a gold medal. 

Various changes and tweaks have been made to the ISU's rules with regard to starting orders during the last two decades. The current rules, which take into account ISU World Standings, make it impossible for skaters with past success to draw early starting orders. They also make it impossible for up-and-coming skaters from developing skating nations to benefit from a later starting position.

In order to gain a better sense of just how much an impact drawing the starting position has had on skaters historically, I started compiling historical data from past Winter Olympics and World Championships from old newspaper clippings, magazine articles and materials housed in libraries and archives. A very special thanks to Karen Cover, the archivist at the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall Of Fame, Frazer Ormondroyd, Dr. Jaochim Bürgschwentner of the Stadtarchiv in Innsbruck, Dr. Matthias Hampe, Sasha Cantet at The Olympic Studies Centre and Carol Stokes, the City Of Calgary's archivist, for their great assistance with this. 

This data, though far from complete, shows in black and white how the luck of the draw went from being often inconsequential during the days of closed marking to the hindrance it arguably is today despite a judging system not based on the principle of directly comparing skaters with one another.

OLYMPICS - MEN

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1908	Ulrich Salchow	1/7	N/A	N/A
1920	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1924	Melville Rogers	8/11	N/A	N/A
1928	Montgomery Wilson	16/16 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1932	Gail Borden II	9/12	N/A	N/A
1936	Kazuyoshi Oimatsu	19/25	N/A	N/A
1948	Hellmut May	7/16	N/A	N/A
1952	Kalle Tuulos	13/14	N/A	N/A
1956	Tilo Gutzeit	11/16	N/A	N/A
1960	Robin Jones	11/18	N/A	N/A
1964	Markus Germann	23/24	N/A	N/A
1968	Lee Kwang-yeong	28/28 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1972	Gheorghe Fazekas	17/17 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1976	Glyn Jones	16/16 (Last Place)	Stan Bohonek	15/17
1980	Brian Pockar	12/16	(no data)	(no data)
1984	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1988	Michael Huth	23/24	Kang Ho	28/28 (Last Place)
1992	Ralph Burghart	18/23	Henrik Walentin	24/30
1994	Fumihiro Oikawa	22/24	Brian Boitano	8/25
1998	Gilberto Viadana	23/24	Zhengxin Guo	10/29
2002	Sergei Rylov	22/24	Michael Weiss	8/28
2006	Tomáš Verner	15/24	Daisuke Takahashi	5/30
2010	Tomáš Verner	17/24	Ri Song-chol	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
2014	Alexei Bychenko	21/24	Liam Firus	28/29 (DNQ for FS)
2018	Deniss Vasiļjevs	20/24	Felipe Montoya	29/30 (DNQ for FS)

OLYMPICS - WOMEN

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1908	Elna Montgomery	5/5 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1920	Svea Norén	3/6	N/A	N/A
1924	Sonja Henie	6/8	N/A	N/A
1928	Theresa Weld Blanchard	13/20	N/A	N/A
1932	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1936	Hertha Frey-Dexler	19/33	N/A	N/A
1948	Maja Hug	19/25	N/A	N/A
1952	Lidy Stoppelman	23/24	N/A	N/A
1956	Jindra Kramperová	17/21	N/A	N/A
1960	Nicole Hassler	11/26	N/A	N/A
1964	Sally-Anne Stapleford	19/30	N/A	N/A
1968	Haruko Ishida	25/31	N/A	N/A
1972	Marina Sanaya	18/19	N/A	N/A
1976	Sharon Burley	20/20 (Last Place)	Grażyna Dudek	20/20 (Last Place)
1980	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1984	Bao Zhenghua	22/23	Bao Zhenghua	21/23
1988	Gina Fulton	23/23 (Last Place)	Petya Gavazova	26/31 (DNQ for FS)
1992	Suzanne Otterson	22/23	(no data)	(no data)
1994	Lily Lee	20/24	Susan Humphreys	26/27 (DNQ for FS)
1998	Alisa Drei	19/24	Maria Butyrskaya	3/28
2002	Vanessa Giunchi	20/23	Stephanie Zhang	25/27 (DNQ for FS)
2006	Silvia Fontana	22/24	Tuğba Karademir	22/29
2010	Tuğba Karademir	24/24 (Last Place)	Sonia Lafuente	22/30
2014	Park So-youn	19/24	Elena Glebova	29/30 (DNQ for FS)
2018	Alexia Paganini	22/24	Bradie Tennell	11/30

OLYMPICS - PAIRS

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1908	Madge and Edgar Syers	3/3	N/A	N/A
1920	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1924	Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson	2/9	N/A	N/A
1928	Ilse Kishauer and Ernst Gaste	8/13	N/A	N/A
1932	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1936	Audrey Garland and Fraser Sweatman	12/18	N/A	N/A
1948	Herta and Emil Ratzenhofer	9/14	N/A	N/A
1952	Peri Horne and Raymond Lockwood	11/13	N/A	N/A
1956	Joyce Coates and Anthony Holles	10/11	N/A	N/A
1960	Margret Göbl and Franz Ningel	5/13	N/A	N/A
1964	Tatiana Zhuk and Alexander Gavrilov	5/17	N/A	N/A
1968	Betty and John McKilligan	17/18	Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov	1/18
1972	Kotoe Nagasawa and Hiroshi Nagakubo	16/16 (Last Place)	Corinna Halke and Eberhard Rausch	10/16
1976	Candy Jones and Don Fraser	14/14 (Last Place)	Kerstin Stolfig and Veit Kempe	7/14
1980	Elizabeth and Peter Cain	11/11 (Last Place)	Elizabeth and Peter Cain	10/11
1984	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1988	Mei Zhibin and Li Wei	14/14 (Last Place)	Mei Zhibin and Li Wei	15/15 (Last Place)
1992	Kathryn Pritchard and Jason Briggs	17/18	Jenni Meno and Scott Wendland	12/18
1994	Yelena Grigoryeva and Sergey Sheyko	17/17 (Last Place)	Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen	15/18
1998	Inga Rodionova and Aleksandr Anichenko	18/20	Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz	11/20
2002	Maria Krasiltseva and Artem Znachkov	20/20 (Last Place)	Michela Cobisi and Ruben de Pra	19/20
2006	Rumyana Spasova and Stanimir Todorov	18/19	Marina Aganina and Artem Knyazev	15/20
2010	Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende	15/20	Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao	1/20
2014	Felicia Zhang and Nate Bartholomay	12/16	Narumi Takahashi and Ryuichi Kihara	18/20 (DNQ for FS)
2018	Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro	9/16	Kim Kyu-eun and Alex Kang-chan Kam	22/22 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)

OLYMPICS - ICE DANCE

Year	First To Skate (FD)	Placement (FD)	First To Skate (OSP/OD/SD, etc.)	Placement (SP)	First To Skate (CD)	Placement (CD)
1976	Stefania Bertelè and Walter Cecconi	17/17 (Last Place)	Barbara Berezowski and David Porter	10/18	Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies,	14/18
1980	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1984	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1988	Honorata Górna and Andrzej Dostatni	17/20	Honorata Górna and Andrzej Dostatni	17/20	Monica MacDonald and Rodney Clarke	20/20 (Last Place)
1992	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1994	Svitlana Chernikova and Oleksandr Sosnenko	19/21	Bérangère Nau and Luc Monéger	15/21	Tatiana Navka and Samuel Gezalian	11/21
1998	Aya Kawai and Hiroshi Tanaka	23/24	Dominique Deniaud and Martial Jaffredo	21/24	Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, Diane Gerenser and Pasquale Camerlengo	7/24, 17/24
2002	Beata Handra and Charles Sinek	23/24	Beata Handra and Charles Sinek	22/24	Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder	1/24, 14/24
2006	Alexandra Kauc and Michał Zych	22/23	Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe	12/24	Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan	22/24
2010	Kamila Hájková and David Vincour	21/23	Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze	21/23	Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte	12/23
2014	Tanja Kolbe and Stefano Caruso	19/20	Cathy and Chris Reed	21/24 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2018	Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac	17/20	Cortney Mansour and Michal Češka	23/24 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - MEN

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS or Overall)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1896	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1897	Thidolf Borgh	4/6	N/A	N/A
1898	Gilbert Fuchs	3/4	N/A	N/A
1899	Ulrich Salchow	2/3	N/A	N/A
1900	Gustav Hügel	1/2	N/A	N/A
1901	Ulrich Salchow	1/2	N/A	N/A
1902	Horatio Tertuliano Torromé	4/4 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1903	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1904	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1905	Richard Johansson	4/5	N/A	N/A
1906	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1907	Martinus Löhrdahl	7/7 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1908	Heinrich Burger	3/3	N/A	N/A
1909	Ernst Herz	3/5	N/A	N/A
1910	Ulrich Salchow	1/4	N/A	N/A
1911	Dunbar Poole	7/7 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1912	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1913	Paul Metzner	8/8 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1914	Ivan Malinin	6/14	N/A	N/A
1922	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1923	Willy Böckl	2/6	N/A	N/A
1924	Willy Böckl	2/7	N/A	N/A
1925	Ludwig Wrede	7/7 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1926	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1927	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1928	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1929	Ian Home Bowhill	7/7 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1930	William Nagle	8/8 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1931	Marcus Nikkanen	7/13	N/A	N/A
1932	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1933	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1934	Gail Borden II	8/8 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1935	Elemér Terták	6/8	N/A	N/A
1936	Lucian Büeler	17/17 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1937	Felix Kaspar	1/11	N/A	N/A
1938	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1939	Elemér Terták	6/11	N/A	N/A
1947	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1948	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1949	Austin Holt	7/10	N/A	N/A
1950	Per Cock-Clausen	9/9 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1951	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1952	Peter Firstbrook	7/11	N/A	N/A
1953	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1954	David Jenkins	4/11	N/A	N/A
1955	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1956	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1957	Hubert Köpfler	12/17	N/A	N/A
1958	Tim Brown	2/23	N/A	N/A
1959	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1960	Robin Jones	14/17	N/A	N/A
1962	Per Kjølberg	15/18	N/A	N/A
1963	William Neale	15/19	N/A	N/A
1964	Sepp Schönmetzler	10/19	N/A	N/A
1965	Hywel Evans	20/20 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1966	Tsuguhiko Kozuka	19/21	N/A	N/A
1967	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1968	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1969	Jay Humphry	3/17	N/A	N/A
1970	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1971	Klaus Grimmelt	19/21	N/A	N/A
1972	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1973	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1974	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1975	Flemming Söderquist	22/22 (Last Place)	Billy Schober	20/22
1976	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1977	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1978	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1979	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1980	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1981	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1982	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1983	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1984	Mark Cockerell	13/15	Cho Jae-hyung	25/25 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
1985	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1986	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1987	(no data)	(no data)	Tomislav Cizmesija	26/27 (DNQ for FS)
1988	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1989	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1990	Oula Jääskeläinen	20/20 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)
1991	Cameron Medhurst	18/20	Paul Wylie	20/33
1992	Zhongyi Jiao	20/24	Oula Jääskeläinen	30/35 (DNQ for FS)
1993	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1994	Markus Leminen	24/24 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)
1995	Naoki Shigematsu	23/24	Ronny Winkler	19/30
1996	Neil Wilson	20/24	Patrick Meier	25/29 (DNQ for FS)
1997	Patrick Meier	23/24	Patrick Meier	26/31
1998	Sven Meyer	22/24	Steven Cousins	7/30
1999	Markus Leminen	23/24	Cornel Gheorghe	28/30 (DNQ for FS)
2000	Konstantin Kostin	23/24	Vakhtang Murvanidze	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
2001	Dmitri Dmitrenko	24/24 (Last Place)	Robert Kazimir	27/30 (DNQ for FS)
2002	Sergei Davydov	24/24 (Last Place)	Tomáš Verner	26/30 (DNQ for FS)
2003	Tomáš Verner	21/24	Sergei Kotov	27/30 (DNQ for FS)
2004	Neil Wilson	22/23	Neil Wilson	23/30
2005	Min Zhang	12/23	Zoltan Toth	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
2006	Andrei Griazev	16/24	Karel Zelenka	24/30 (DNQ for FS)
2007	Ryan Bradley	13/24	Dong-Whun Lee	34/42 (DNQ for FS)
2008	Azbal Rakimgaliev	24/24 (Last Place)	Tigran Vardanjan	44/45 (DNQ for FS)
2009	Javier Fernández	19/24	Mikael Redin	42/50 (DNQ for FS)
2010	Jinlin Guan	16/24	Maxim Shipov	43/46 (DNQ for FS)
2011	Paolo Bacchini	20/24	Viktor Pfeifer	26/30 (DNQ for FS)
2012	Misha Ge	23/24	Sergei Voronov	17/30
2013	Justus Strid	24/24 (Last Place)	Azbal Rakimgaliev	28/34 (DNQ for FS)
2014	Elladj Baldé	17/23	Maciej Cieplucha	21/32
2015	Takahiko Kozuka	9/24	Ivan Righini	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
2016	Michael Christian Martinez	18/24	Ivan Pavlov	24/30
2017	Michael Christian Martinez	24/24 (Last Place)	Larry Loupolover	36/36 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2018	Julian Zhi Jie Yee	20/24	Slavik Hayrapetyan	23/37
2019	Alexei Bychenko	22/24	Paul Fentz	28/35 (DNQ for FS)
2021	Aleksandr Selevko	15/24	Valtter Virtanen	31/33 (DNQ for FS)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - WOMEN

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS or Overall)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1906	Madge Syers	1/5	N/A	N/A
1907	Elsa Rendschmidt	4/5	N/A	N/A
1908	Lili Kronberger	1/2	N/A	N/A
1909	Lili Kronberger	1/1	N/A	N/A
1910	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1911	Lili Kronberger	1/3	N/A	N/A
1912	Ludovika Jakobsson	7/7 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1913	Magda Mauroy	6/8	N/A	N/A
1914	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1922	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1923	Ethel Muckelt	4/4 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1924	Sonja Henie	5/7	N/A	N/A
1925	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1926	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1927	Herma Szabo	2/4	N/A	N/A
1928	Kathleen Shaw	6/6 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1929	Melitta Brunner	3/6	N/A	N/A
1930	Constance Wilson Samuel	4/6	N/A	N/A
1931	Yvonne de Ligne	8/9	N/A	N/A
1932	Fritzi Burger	2/14	N/A	N/A
1933	Sonja Henie	1/9	N/A	N/A
1934	Erna Andersen	10/13	N/A	N/A
1935	Gweneth Butler	5/8	N/A	N/A
1936	Sonja Henie	1/17	N/A	N/A
1937	Megan Taylor	2/12	N/A	N/A
1938	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1939	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1947	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1948	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1949	Jiřína Nekolová	4/10	N/A	N/A
1950	Dagmar Lerchová	12/14	N/A	N/A
1951	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1952	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1953	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1954	Miggs Dean	15/20	N/A	N/A
1955	Miggs Dean	16/19	N/A	N/A
1956	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1957	Alice Fischer	20/20 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1958	Nicole Hassler	23/29	N/A	N/A
1959	Ina Bauer	4/14	N/A	N/A
1960	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1962	Victoria Fisher	16/21	N/A	N/A
1963	Shirra Kenworthy	20/24	N/A	N/A
1964	Hana Mašková	16/21	N/A	N/A
1965	Kumiko Okawa	12/18	N/A	N/A
1966	Beate Richter	19/20	N/A	N/A
1967	Zsuzsa Szentmiklóssy	21/22	N/A	N/A
1968	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1969	Kazumi Yamashita	10/17	N/A	N/A
1970	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1971	Sonja Balun	20/22	N/A	N/A
1972	Marina Sanaya	17/21	N/A	N/A
1973	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1974	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1975	Karin Iten	27/27 (Last Place)	Sophie Verlaan	26/27
1976	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1977	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1978	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1979	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1980	Liu Zhiying	28/29	(no data)	(no data)
1981	Denyse Adam	30/31	(no data)	(no data)
1982	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1983	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1984	Hyi-Sung Kim	23/23 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)
1985	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1986	(no data)	(no data)	Constanze Gensel	19/27
1987	Helene Persson	19/23	Petya Gavazova	25/27 (DNQ for FS)
1988	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1989	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1990	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1991	Lisa Sargeant	18/20	Milena Marinovich	32/37 (DNQ for FS)
1992	Irena Zemanová	21/24	Juanita-Anne Yorke	39/30 (DNQ for FS)
1993	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1994	Ying Liu	23/23 (Last Place)	Susan Humphreys	10/23
1995	Jenna Arrowsmith	24/24 (Last Place)	Jenna Arrowsmith	29/31
1996	Jennifer Robinson	20/24	Vanessa Gusmeroli	18/30
1997	Yulia Vorobieva	20/23	Marta Andrade	28/30 (DNQ for FS)
1998	Mojca Kopač	24/24 (Last Place)	Alisa Drei	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
1999	Fumie Suguri	21/24	Olga Vassiljeva	30/30 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2000	Zoya Douchine	18/24	Marion Krijgsman	30/30 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2001	Zuzana Babiaková	24/24 (Last Place)	Roxana Luca	26/30 (DNQ for FS)
2002	Julia Soldatova	17/23	Miriam Manzano	18/29
2003	Anne-Sophie Calvez	21/24	Miriam Manzano	25/30 (DNQ for FS)
2004	Jenna McCorkell	24/24 (Last Place)	Ji-Eun Choi	30/30 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2005	Candice Didier	23/24	Tuğba Karademir	26/30 (DNQ for FS)
2006	Valentina Marchei	23/24	Tuğba Karademir	22/30
2007	Tamar Katz	22/24	Ami Parekh	44/45 (DNQ for FS)
2008	Elene Gedevanishvili	18/23	Morgan Figgins	52/53 (DNQ for FS)
2009	Ana Cecelia Cantu	24/24 (Last Place)	Clara Peters	52/53 (DNQ for FS)
2010	Anastasia Gimazetdinova	23/24	Clara Peters	47/53 (DNQ for FS)
2011	Irina Movchan	23/24	Karina Johnson	26/30 (DNQ for FS)
2012	Alisa Mikonsaari	24/24 (Last Place)	Clara Peters	29/30 (DNQ for FS)
2013	Sonia Lafuente	23/24	Patricia Gleščič	34/35 (DNQ for FS)
2014	Valentina Marchei	14/23	Netta Schreiber	33/33 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2015	Nicole Schott	23/24	Netta Schreiber	30/35 (DNQ for FS)
2016	Viveca Lindfors	16/24	Kristen Spours	36/38 (DNQ for FS)
2017	Zijun Li	20/24	Anne Line Gjersem	34/37 (DNQ for FS)
2018	Alexia Paganini	22/23	Dasa Grm	22/37
2019	Natasha McKay	21/24	Hongyi Chen	15/40
2021	Lindsay van Zundert	15/24	Lindsay van Zundert	24/37

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - PAIRS

Year	First To Skate (FS)	Placement (FS or Overall)	First To Skate (SP)	Placement (SP)
1908	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1909	Alexia Schøien and Yngvar Bryn	5/5 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1910	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1911	Ludovika Eilers and Walter Jakobsson	1/1	N/A	N/A
1912	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1913	Elly Svensson and Per Thorén	5/7	N/A	N/A
1914	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1922	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1923	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1924	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1925	Herma Szabo and Ludwig Wrede	1/5	N/A	N/A
1926	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1927	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1928	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1929	Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede	2/7	N/A	N/A
1930	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1931	Elisabeth Böckel and Otto Hayek	9/9 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1932	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1933	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1934	Randi Bakke and Christen Christensen	5/6	N/A	N/A
1935	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1936	Louise Bertram and Stewart Reburn	4/6	N/A	N/A
1937	Ilse and Erik Pausin	2/8	N/A	N/A
1938	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1939	Erika Bass and Béla Barcza	8/10	N/A	N/A
1947	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1948	Suzanne Morrow and Wallace Distelmeyer	3/14	N/A	N/A
1949	Andrea Kékesy and Ede Király	1/12	N/A	N/A
1950	Denise and Jacques Favart	12/12 (Last Place)	N/A	N/A
1951	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1952	Karol and Peter Kennedy	2/10	N/A	N/A
1953	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1954	Britta Lindmark and Ulf Berendt	9/10	N/A	N/A
1955	Marianna and László Nagy	3/12	N/A	N/A
1956	Marika Kilius and Franz Ningel	3/11	N/A	N/A
1957	Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul	1/5	N/A	N/A
1958	Maria and Otto Jelinek	3/15	N/A	N/A
1959	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1960	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A
1962	Judianne and Jerry Fotheringill	10/13	N/A	N/A
1963	Linda Ann Ward and Neil Carpenter	11/12	N/A	N/A
1964	Mária Csordás and László Kondi	12/13	Gerlinde Schönbauer and Willy Bietak	13/13 (Last Place)
1965	Susan and Paul Huehnergard	14/14 (Last Place)	Irene Müller and Hans-Georg Dallmer	8/14
1966	Gerlinde Schönbauer and Willy Bietak	14/15	Gerlinde Schönbauer and Willy Bietak	13/15
1967	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1968	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1969	Melissa and Mark Militano	8/13	Liana Drahová and Peter Bartosiewicz	12/14
1970	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1971	Karin and Christian Künzle	16/17	Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov	1/18
1972	Heidemarie Steiner and Heinz-Ulrich Walther	3/17	Almut Lehmann and Herbert Wiesinger	4/15
1973	(no data)	(no data)	Gale and Joel Fuhrman	15f16
1974	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1975	Kathy Hutchinson and Jamie McGrigor	14/14 (Last Place)	Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner	10/14
1976	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1977	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1978	(no data)	(no data)	Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev	1/16
1979	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1980	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1981	(no data)	(no data)	Susan Garland and Robert Daw	8/11
1982	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1983	(no data)	(no data)	Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach	1/17
1984	Babette Preußler and Tobias Schröter	9/10	Lea Ann Miller and Bill Fauver	9/12
1985	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1986	Cheryl Peake and Andrew Naylor	12/15	(no data)	(no data)
1987	Danielle and Stephen Carr	12/13	Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev	2/13
1988	(no data)	(no data)	Denise Benning and Lyndon Johnston	6/16
1989	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1990	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1991	Saskia and Guy Bourgeois	18/19	Rena Inoue and Tomoaki Koyama	16/19
1992	Katarzyna Głowacka and Krzysztof Korcarz	16/20	Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler	2/20
1993	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1994	(no data)	(no data)	Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen	14/28
1995	Ulrike Gerstl and Bjorn Lobenwein	20/21	Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov	15/21
1996	Olga Boguslavska and Juri Salmonov	23/23 (Last Place)	Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer	1/23
1997	Inga Rodionova and Aleksandr Anichenko	21/23	Maria Krasiltseva and Alexander Chestnikh	23/25
1998	Jelena Sirokhvatova and Juri Salmanov	19/20	Inga Rodionova and Aleksandr Anichenko	18/20
1999	Ekaterina Danko and Gennadi Emeljenenko	18/19	Peggy Schwarz and Mirko Müller	9/21
2000	Oľga Beständigová and Josef Beständig	18/19	Catherine Huc and Vivien Rolland	21/22 (DNQ for FS)
2001	Maria Krasiltseva and Artem Znachkov	19/19 (Last Place)	Ivana Durin and Andrei Maximov	24/24 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2002	Viktoria Shklover and Valdis Mintals	17/20	Valérie Marcoux and Bruno Marcotte	12/20
2003	Diana Rennik and Aleksei Saks	19/20	Olga Boguslavska and Andrei Brovenko	21/21 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2004	Marina Aganina and Artem Knyazev	19/19 (Last Place)	Marina Aganina and Artem Knyazev	19/19 (Last Place)
2005	Julia Shapiro and Vadim Akolzin	18/19	Julia Shapiro and Vadim Akolzin	17/20
2006	Emma Brien and Stuart Beckingham	20/20 (Last Place)	Mari Vartmann and Florian Just	19/20
2007	Angelina Pylkina and Niklas Hogner	15/18	Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski	14/22
2008	Ariel Fay Gagnon and Chad Tsagris	18/20	Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy	2/20
2009	Nicole Della Monica and Yannick Kocon	18/20	Nina Ivanova and Filip Zalevski	23/25 (DNQ for FS)
2010	Anaïs Morand and Antoine Dorsaz	14/16	Jennifer Crenshaw and Chad Tsagris	21/25 (DNQ for FS)
2011	Natalia Zabiiako and Sergei Kulbach	16/16 (Last Place)	Danielle Montalbano and Evgeni Krasnopolski	20/22 (DNQ for FS)
2012	Mari Vartmann and Aaron Van Cleave	14/16	Mari Vartmann and Aaron Van Cleave	16/20
2013	Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir	12/16	Magdalena Klatka and Radoslaw Chruscinski1	18/18 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2014	Maylin and Daniel Wende	13/16	Miriam Ziegler and Severin Kiefer	22/23 (DNQ for FS)
2015	Amani Fancy and Christopher Boyadji	16/16 (Last Place)	Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch	11/19
2016	Lola Esbrat and Andrei Novoselov	16/16 (Last Place)	Xuehan Wang and Lei Wang	15/22
2017	Tae Ok Ryom and Ju Sik Kim	15/16	Ioulia Chtchetinina and Noah Scherer	28/28 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2018	Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor	16/16 (Last Place)	Elizaveta Kashitsyna and Mark Magyar	28/28 (Last Place, DNQ for FS)
2019	Hanna Abrazhevich and Martin Bidar	18/19	Tae Ok Ryom and Ju Sik Kim	13/19
2021	Bogdana Lukashevich and Alexander Stepanov	17/20	Elizaveta Zhuk and Martin Bidar	16/24

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ICE DANCE

Year	First To Skate (FD)	Placement (FD or Overall)	First To Skate (OSP/OD/SD, etc.)	Placement (SP)	First To Skate (CD)	Placement (CD)
1950	Sybil Cooke and Robert S. Hudson	2/6	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1951	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1952	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1953	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1954	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1955	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1956	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1957	Kay Morris and Michael Robinson	6/11	N/A	N/A	Carmel and Ed Bodel	7/11
1958	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	Annick de Tretinian and Jacques Mer	11/16
1959	Svata and Mirek Staroba	8/9	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1960	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1962	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1963	Jitka Babická and Jaromír Holan	14/18	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1964	Diane Towler and Bernard Ford	13/16	N/A	N/A	Yvonne Suddick and Roger Kennerson	4/16
1965	Lynn Matthews and Byron Topping	11/14	N/A	N/A	Györgyi Korda and Pál Vásárhelyi	11/14
1966	Susan and Stanley Urban	14/16	N/A	N/A	Kristin Fortune and Dennis Sveum	2/16
1967	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1968	(no data)	(no data)	N/A	N/A	(no data)	(no data)
1969	Ilona Berecz and István Sugár	14/15	Ilona Berecz and István Sugár	12/15	Ilona Berecz and István Sugár	12/15
1970	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1971	Brigitte Scheijbal and Walter Leschetizky	20/20 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)	Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky	2/20
1972	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	Keiko Achiwa and Yasuhiro Noto	16/16 (Last Place)
1973	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1974	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1975	Halina Gordon and Wojciech Bańkowski	14/14 (Last Place)	Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov	2/14	(no data)	(no data)
1976	Susan Kelley and Andrew Stroukoff	17/19	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1977	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1978	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1979	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1980	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1981	Karen and Douglas Mankovich	21/21 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)	Karen and Douglas Mankovich	18/21
1982	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1983	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1984	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1985	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1986	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1987	Hristina Boyanova and Yavor Ivanov	21/22	Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko	21/22	Suzanne Semanick and Scott Gregory, Kyung Sook Park and Seung Jon Han, Kathrin and Christoff Beck	5/22, 22/22 (Last Place), 6/22
1988	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1989	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1990	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1991	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1992	Kaoru and Kenji Takino	22/24	Penny Mann and Juan Carlos Noria	16/26	(no data)	(no data)
1993	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1994	Nakako Tsuzuki and Kazu Nakamura	24/24 (Last Place)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)	(no data)
1995	Kaho Koinuma and Tigran Arakelyan	24/24 (Last Place)	Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh	15/24	(no data)	(no data)
1996	(no data)	(no data)	Allison MacLean and Konrad Schaub	18/30	Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, Chantal Loyer and Justin Bell	9/33, 28/33
1997	Aya Kawai and Hiroshi Tanaka	23/24	Aya Kawai and Hiroshi Tanaka	21/24	Irina Romanova and Igor Yaroshenko, Kati Winkler and René Lohse	8/30, 14/30
1998	Dominique Deniaud and Martial Jaffredo	23/24	Jessica Joseph and Charles Butler	29/30 (DNQ for FD)	Jessica Joseph and Charles Butler, Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski	26/30 (DNQ for FD), 15/30
1999	Pia-Maria Gustafsson and Antti Grönlund	25/25 (Last Place)	Pia-Maria Gustafsson and Antti Grönlund	31/31 (Last Place)	Danielle Rigg-Smith and Trent Nelson-Bond, Eliane and Daniel Hugentobler	32/32 (Last Place, DNQ for FD), 17/32
2000	Julie Keeble and Lukasz Zalewski	21/22	Zuzana Durkovska and Marian Mesaros	28/30 (DNQ for FD)	Tiffany Hyden and Vazgen Azrojan, Julie Keeble and Lukasz Zalewski	29/32 (DNQ for FD), 23/32
2001	Nakako Tsuzuki and Rinat Farkhoutdinov	24/24 (Last Place)	Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov	12/30	Valentina Anselmi and Fabrizio Pedrazzini, Weina Zhang and Xianming Cao, Zita Gebora and Andras Visontai, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder	14/18 (DNQ for FD), 15/18 (DNQ for FD), 13/17, 8/17
2002	Rie Arikawa and Kenji Miyamoto	24/24 (Last Place)	Valentina Anselmi and Fabrizio Pedrazzini	22/28	Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski	14/28, 5/28
2003	Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan	24/24 (Last Place)	Agnieszka Dulej and Slawonir Janicki	27/29 (DNQ for FS)	Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan, Roxane Petetin and Mathieu Jost	13/14, 12/15
2004	Fang Yang and Chongbo Gao	23/24	Josée Piché and Pascal Denis	24/29	Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto	7/15, 4/14
2005	Julia Golovina and Oleg Voiko	21/24	Christina and William Beier	20/30	Daniela and Fabian Keller	29/30 (DNQ for FD)
2006	Alexandra and Roman Zaretski	20/24	Laura and Luke Munana	27/29 (DNQ for FD)	Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski	6/30
2007	Katherine Copely and Deividas Stagniunas	22/24	Katherine Copely and Deividas Stagniunas	20/29	Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir	9/29
2008	Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter	24/24 (Last Place)	Kamila Hajkova and David Vincour	25/30 (DNQ for FD)	Xiayang Yu and Chen Wang	23/31
2009	Xintong Huang and Xun Zheng	22/24	Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter	27/30 (DNQ for FD)	Ksenia Shmirina and Yahor Maistrov	30/30 (Last Place, DNQ for FD)
2010	Cathy and Chris Reed	13/19	Caitlin Mallory and Kristjan Rand	21/26 (DNQ for FD)	Jenette Maitz and Alper Ucar	27/27 (DNQ for FD)
2011	Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri	19/20	Brooke Elizabeth Frieling and Lionel Rumi	24/25 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2012	Sara Hurtado Martin and Adrià Díaz	18/20	Siobhan Heekin-Canedy and Dmitri Dun	17/25	N/A	N/A
2013	Cathy and Chris Reed	20/20 (Last Place)	Allison Reed and Vasili Rogov	23/29 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2014	Sara Hurtado Martin and Adrià Díaz	17/20	Tanja Kolbe and Stefano Caruso	21/32 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2015	Carolina Moscheni and Adam Lukacs	18/20	Cecilia Törn and Jussiville Partanen	25/29 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2016	Alexandra Nazarova and Maxim Nakitin	18/20	Elisabeth Paradis and Francois-Xavier Ouellette	23/30 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2017	Kavita Lorenz and Joti Polizoakis	18/20	Anastasia Galyeta and Avidan Brown	31/32 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2018	Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu	17/20	Teodora Markova and Simon Daze	29/31 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2019	Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius	17/20	Victoria Manni and Carlo Roethlisberger	23/27 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A
2021	Alexandra Nazarova and Maxim Nikitin	18/20	Ekaterina Kuznetsova and Oleksandr Kolosovskyi	30/31 (DNQ for FD)	N/A	N/A

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