World Figure Skating Championships: Ukraine fell just short of an Olympic license.

The Ukrainian figure skating team performed in the free program of the 2025 World Championships in sport pairs. As a result, Ukrainians did not receive the Olympic license. This was reported by 'Glavkom' citing 'Suspilne Sport'. The Ukrainian pair of Sofia Holichenko and Artem Daryensky became the only ones to qualify for the free program. In the short program, they scored 57.2 points and took 17th place. In the free program, Holichenko and Daryensky again placed 17th with 111.35 points. Overall, they scored 168.55 points for both programs. The Ukrainian pair was unable to secure the Olympic license. They were separated by 2.26 points. Who and how many licenses were obtained for the 2026 Olympics in sport pairs - Two: Canada, Italy, Germany, USA - One: Japan, Georgia, Australia, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Great Britain, Poland, Netherlands 'The performances were quite good. Perhaps, due to my mistake (I stumbled [in the short program]) on the entry to the lift) it cost us a point. But everyone makes mistakes. The performances were good. Considering that we skated at home once the short and once the free program - I think it is generally well. What is needed to compete for the license? I believe we need to make more interesting programs. More small lifts, add something like that. Because if we look at other pairs, they all do small lifts: after the lift [the partner] catches [the partner girl] and they do some small rotation and go further. That’s why it’s called 'figure skating' – we need to add such little tricks,' said Holichenko after the free program. The title of reigning world champions in figure skating was defended by the Japanese pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara. Their advantage over the German representatives Minerva Fabienne Heise and Nikita Volodin was only 0.71 points. World Figure Skating Championships. Sport pairs, free program 1. Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (Japan) 219.79 points 2. Minerva Fabienne Heise/Nikita Volodin (Germany) 219.08 3. Sara Conti/Niccolò Macii (Italy) 210.47 ... 17. Sofia Holichenko/Artem Daryensky (Ukraine) 168.55 We remind you, the titled Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva participated in the fourth congress of the 'First Movement'.