What to know for the figure skating world championships

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The 2023 figure skating world championships begin tonight (in Canadian time) in Japan. Three big things to know: Russians remain banned due to the invasion of Ukraine, an American phenom and a Japanese star will duke it out for the men's title, and Canada has a good chance to end its five-year gold-medal drought.

Here are the details on those main storylines and some other key info about the biggest event of the figure skating season:

The sport's most dominant country is absent again.

The last time a major figure skating event was open to the entire world, Russia topped the 2022 Winter Olympic standings with six medals and two gold. The country looked poised to dominate last year's world championships too, before the invasion of Ukraine triggered a widespread ban from international sports that also caused Russian skaters to miss the entire 2022-23 Grand Prix season and, now, their second straight worlds.

Their absence will be felt most in the women's event, where Russians swept the podium at the 2021 worlds and may have done the same at last year's Olympics had young title favourite Kamila Valieva not melted down amid a doping controversy and finished fourth. Earlier this year, the 16-year-old was cleared of wrongdoing by Russian authorities — a suspicious ruling that has since been appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. If the Court of Arbitration for Sport decides in WADA's favour, Russia could be stripped of its victory in the Olympic team event and Canada upgraded from fourth place to a bronze medal.

The Quad God takes on the defending champ for men's gold.

The biggest story heading into this season was the emergence of American phenom Ilia Malinin, the self-branded Quad God who in September became the first skater ever to land the ultra-difficult quadruple axel in competition. A video of the jump went viral, but because it happened at a low-stakes event in a near-empty arena, everyone wanted to know whether the teenager could deliver on a big stage.

For the most part, Malinin lived up to the hype. At his Grand Prix debut in October near Boston, he nailed the quad axel (along with four other quads) in front of a sell-out crowd to become the youngest skater ever to win the men's event at Skate America. Malinin, who turned 18 in December, also won his other Grand Prix assignment, in Finland, before a sloppy short program sent him to bronze at the prestigious Grand Prix Final in Italy. A pair of Japanese skaters, Shoma Uno and Sota Yamamoto, took gold and silver in the top event of the season so far.

Now Malinin will try to take the world title from Uno, who won it for the first time last year after Olympic champion Nathan Chen began an indefinite leave from the sport. The Grand Prix Final was Uno and Malinin's only head-to-head meeting, and Uno scored a decisive victory, earning the best total men's score of the season by a wide margin. At the worlds, the Japanese star will have the added boost (though also the pressure) of performing in front of a home crowd.

Japan has a good chance to sweep the singles titles as it also boasts arguably the top two skaters in the women's event. Kaori Sakamoto is the defending world champion and Mai Mihara won gold at the Grand Prix Final. Also, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara are favoured to win the pairs gold after taking silver last year and then sweeping their three Grand Prix events this season (including the Final) along with the Four Continents championship last month.

Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have a good shot at the ice dance gold.

Canadian figure skating has remained in a relatively fallow period since a bumper crop of athletes exited the sport following the 2018 Olympics. After topping the standings with four medals and two gold in Pyeongchang, Canada got shut out at the 2022 Games in Beijing and managed just one medal at last year's worlds — a bronze by Vanessa James and Eric Radford, who are now retired.

But with Russians out again and 2022 Olympic and world ice dance champs Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France not competing this season, Canada has a good chance to land its first figure skating world title in five years. Gilles and Poirier, who took bronze at the 2021 worlds, swept their three Grand Prix events this season — including the Final, where they were the only Canadians to reach the podium.

After their Final victory, though, Gilles and Poirier missed the national championships and the Four Continents as Gilles recovered from an appendectomy. If the Canadians are rusty, American rivals Madison Chock and Evan Bates could steal the gold after taking silver at the Grand Prix Final.

Gilles and Poirier are Canada's only real world-title contenders, but two other teams have a reasonable shot at a medal. Fellow ice dancers Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen enjoyed a strong Grand Prix regular season, winning a gold and a silver, before finishing sixth in the six-team Final. The pairs duo of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps also qualified for the Final with a win and a runner-up finish in their regular events before placing fourth.

No Canadian singles skaters made it to the Grand Prix Final, and it would be a borderline miracle if Madeline Schizas, Conrad Orzel (in his worlds debut) or Keegan Messing (in the final performance of his career) reached the podium at worlds.

Also competing for Canada are the pairs tandems of Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud and Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar. McIntosh is the older sister of Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh. Read more about the siblings' connection in this story by CBC Sports' Devin Heroux.

For more on the world championships, watch this preview with That Figure Skating Show host Asher Hill. Watch the worlds live starting tonight around 10 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. See the full streaming schedule here.