DETROIT – The World Figure Skating Championships begin Wednesday March 29 in Helsinki, Finland with athletes training in metro Detroit competing.
According to NBC Sports, the US could have its best team in more than a decade, which is crucial since the results of the World Championship determine how many entries each nation gets in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
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Metro Detroit is well represented among the US competitors, with ice dance teams Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The Shibutani just won back-to-back national championships (2016, 2017) and a silver medal at the 2016 World Championships. The brother-sister duo, known as the Shib Sibs, are from Ann Arbor. They competed in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia and are working towards qualifying for their second Olympics next year.
Chock and Bates are also working towards their second Olympics . They formed a partnership in 2011. They were the national champions in 2015 and silver medalists in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, they were world bronze medalists and are also vying to medal again at this year's World Championships.
Both the Shibutanis and Chock and Bates are medal contenders at the Worlds competition.
Nathan Chen, 17, will compete in the men's singles and could be the first American to get on the podium since Evan Lysacek won gold in 2009. Chen, trains in California and now part time in Canton.
Chen made history at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships by becoming the first figure skater to ever land five quadruple jumps in a single program. He won the national championship in January and is already eyeing the 2018 Winter Games.
In addition to American figure skaters training in metro Detroit, several other international ice teams have made this area their home base. Between the Arctic Edge in Canton, the Novi Ice Arena and the Detroit Skating Club in West Bloomfield, as many as 22 ice dance teams train in metro Detroit. They come from all over the world including Ukraine, Russia, England and Canada to name a few.
Though not competing at the World Championships, Gracie Gold has recently moved her training home base to Canton as she prepares to make another run for the Olympics. Gold, who competed in 2014 Sochi Games, will be training with Marina Zoueva and Oleg Epstein at the Arctic Edge of Canton.
Gold finished fourth at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but did take home a bronze medal for the figure skating team event. Gold won the U.S. National Championships in 2014 and 2016, but placed sixth during this year's national competition.
Local 4 and ClickOnDetroit.com are your source for all Olympic news as we count down to the 2018 Winter Games.