The 2008

World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships (''"Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the categories of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. ...

was a senior international figure skating competition in the 2007–08 figure skating season. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

, and

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

. The event was held at the Scandinavium arena in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

from March 16 to 23.

Qualification

The competition was open to skaters from ISU member nations who had reached the age of 15 by July 1, 2007. The corresponding competition for younger skaters was the 2008 World Junior Championships. Based on the results of the 2007 World Championships, each country was allowed between one and three entries per discipline. National associations selected their entries based on their own criteria. Due to the large number of entries at the World Championships, only the top 24 single skaters and top 20 pairs advanced to the free skating after the short program. In ice dancing, the top 30 couples in the

compulsory dance The compulsory dance (CD), now called the pattern dance, is a part of the figure skating segment of ice dance competitions in which all the competing couples perform the same standardized steps and holds to the music of a specified tempo and gen ...

advanced to the

original dance The original dance (OD) was one of the programs performed by figure skaters in ice dance competitions, in which the ice dancers skated "a dance of their own creation to dance music they have selected for the designated rhythm(s)".Rulebook, p. 90 ...

, and the top 24 couples after the original dance advanced to the free dance.

Medals summary

Medalists

Medals by country

Competition notes

The

was the Argentine Tango.

Dan Zhang Zhang Dan (; born 4 October 1985) is a Chinese former pair skater. With Zhang Hao, she is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a four-time (2005 bronze, 2006, 2008, 2009 silver) World medalist, and a two-time (2005, 2010) Four Continents champ ...

/ Hao Zhang from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

set a new world record of 74.36 points under the

ISU Judging System The ISU Judging System (or the International Judging System (IJS)), occasionally referred to as the Code of Points (COP) system, is the scoring system that has been used since 2004 to judge the figure skating disciplines of men's and ladies' sin ...

for pairs' short program. European champion ice dancers Oksana Domnina /

Maxim Shabalin Maxim Andreyevich Shabalin (russian: Максим Андреевич Шабалин; born 25 January 1982) is a Russian former competitive ice dancer. He and partner Oksana Domnina are the 2010 Olympic bronze medalists, the 2009 World Champions ...

(RUS) withdrew before the event due to an injury to his knee. They were replaced by

Ekaterina Bobrova Ekaterina Alexandrovna Bobrova (russian: link=no, Екатерина Александровна Боброва, born 28 March 1990) is a Russian retired ice dancer. With partner Dmitri Soloviev, she is the 2014 Olympic champion in the team eve ...

Dmitri Soloviev Dmitri Vladimirovich Soloviev (russian: Дмитрий Владимирович Соловьёв, born July 18, 1989) is a Russian ice dancer. With partner Ekaterina Bobrova, he is the 2014 Olympic champion in the team event, the 2013 World br ...

. Four Continents and Grand Prix Final bronze medalist

Evan Lysacek Evan Frank Lysacek (; born June 4, 1985) is an American retired figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, a two-time (2005, 2007) Four Continents champion, the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion, and a two-time (2007, ...

withdrew before the event due to injury. He was replaced by US pewter medalist

Jeremy Abbott Jeremy Abbott (born June 5, 1985) is a former American figure skater. He is the 2008 Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time (2007, 2011) Four Continents bronze medalist, and a four-time (2009, 2010, 2012, 2014) U.S. national champion. He repre ...

Results

Men

Jeffrey Buttle was the sixth Canadian man to win the world title. His win set off a controversy because he did not attempt a quadruple jump. Brian Joubert the silver medalist criticized the system for producing a winner who did not complete or attempt a quadruple jump. This set off the first of many debates on the value of the quads and what men's figure skating should be about that would culminate in the 2010 Olympic

Quadruple jump controversy At the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the final results of the men's figure skating competition sparked what has been dubbed a quadruple jump controversy. At the heart of it lies a quadruple jump done in combina ...

Ladies

Carolina Kostner Carolina Kostner (born 8 February 1987) is an Italian figure skater. She is the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2012 World champion, a five-time European champion (2007–2008, 2010, 2012–2013), and the 2011 Grand Prix Final champion. She ...

led the short program with 64.28 points, just 0.18 points higher than

Mao Asada is a Japanese former competitive figure skater. She is the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World champion (2008, 2010, 2014), a three-time Four Continents champion (2008, 2010, 2013), and a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2005� ...

who was in second. Kim Yuna fell on her triple Lutz, leaving her in fifth place after the short program. Despite popping a triple lutz at the end of her program and saving multiple jump landings, Kim earned the top free skate score of 123.38 points. Kostner received negative grade of execution on five of her seven jumping passes but still managed the third highest free score. Asada, one of two women attempting the triple Axel in the competition, fell during the takeoff of the axel, but still managed to do two triple-triples and score 1.46 points higher than Kostner, securing the gold medal. Silver went to Kostner and Kim received the bronze medal.

Pairs

Ice dancing

Multiple spots for 2009 Worlds

The following countries have earned more than one entry to the 2009 World Championships based on performance at the 2008 World Championships.

References

External links

Competitors list

Entries and results
* * * * {{2007–08 in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

International figure skating competitions hosted by Sweden 2000s in Gothenburg March 2008 sports events in Europe International sports competitions in Gothenburg