American star Ilia Malinin continued the dominance of the United States by winning the men's singles title at the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

Malinin claimed the gold with 318.56 points, followed by Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov and Japan's Yuma Kagiyama. Dai Dawei finished 18th with 221.20 to secure an Olympic berth for China in the men's singles.

Team USA stood out at this tournament, also a qualifier for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, with Malinin and returning women's champion Alysa Liu taking the singles titles and ice dancers Madison Chock/Evan Bates securing a historic third straight Worlds win. Japan's Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara topped the pairs' event.

Struggling for tickets to Milan, Chinese skaters competed in the women's, men's singles and ice dance. However, only Dai completed his mission while An Xiangyi fell short of the women's free skate and young ice dance duo Ren Junfei/Xing Jianing also missed the cut.

"This wasn't my best performance," said Dai. "But competing against the world's top skaters has been motivating. As my first Worlds, it brings me closer to my dream. I'll work with my coach on new programs for next season."

With the season concluded, China's focus and hopes for more figure skating Olympic berths shift to September's Olympic qualifier in Beijing.