The World Junior Championships are back in Taipei City for the first time since 2017.

When is it on?

The World Junior Championships begin Wednesday, 28 February with the pairs short programme and conclude Sunday, 3 March with the exhibition gala.

Who is skating?

Rio Nakata (JPN) is the Junior Grand Prix Final from last December, although he only finished fifth in January at the Winter Youth Olympics. Adam Hagara (SVK) has had a great season so far by taking bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final and silver at the Winter Youth Olympics. Minkyu Seo (KOR) is the skater with the highest season best of all the competitors in the men’s event.

Mao Shimada (JPN) is undefeated this season with victories at the Junior Grand Prix Final and Winter Youth Olympics, as well as being the defending World Junior champion. Jia Shin (KOR) has been the bridesmaid to Shimada at all three of those events and will be seeking to topple her Japanese rival. It will be the debut for Rena Uezono (JPN) at Junior Worlds. She claimed the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final this season.

There is probably no surer bet this week than Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (GEO) taking home gold in the pairs event. The Georgians handily won the Junior Grand Prix Final and picked up silver at last month’s European Championships. Behind them the Junior Grand Prix Final silver medallists Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov (CAN) could very well repeat that performance and improve on their sixth place at last year’s Junior Worlds. Martina Ariano Kent and Charly Laliberte Laurent (CAN) have the third highest season best of the pairs competing in Taipei.

Leah Neset and Artem Markelov (USA) are undefeated this season and are poised to continued their country’s strong tradition in ice dance. Elizabeth Tkachenko and Alexei Kiliakov (ISR) became the first Israeli ice dancers to win a medal at a Junior Grand Prix Final when they bagged silver in Beijing. Darya Grimm and Michail Savitskiy (GER) were forced to withdraw midway through last year’s Junior Worlds. This season they won both of their Junior Grand Prix assignments and nabbed a bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final.

Everything you need to know (and some things you did not) about the skaters, the competition schedule and results can be viewed here.

When is the skating on?

Evening till the early hours of the morning in North America, morning till lunchtime in Europe and lunchtime till evening in Asia. The times listed for the World Junior Championships are local and if you want to know what the time difference is between where you are and Taipei then this link is your friend.

Where can I watch the pretty skaters?

This season’s World Junior Championships can be viewed on the Skating ISU YouTube channel. Geographic restrictions may apply.

What are the hashtags?

#WorldJFigure #FigureSkating