ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships

Latvia Team Amber competing in 2013

The ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships (WSSC) are the world championships for the sport of synchronized skating. Held since 2000, the World Synchronized Skating Championships is an annual event organized by the International Skating Union and attracts the most elite senior-level synchronized skating teams from around the world to compete for the World Championship.

Since the beginning, the top positions have been mainly dominated by Sweden and Finland: the Swedish Team Surprise have won six World titles, four silver medals and one bronze medal and the Finnish Marigold IceUnity are five-time World Champions with seven silver medals and two bronze medals. Rockettes from Finland have earned three World titles, four silver medals and six bronze medals. Other major teams include the Canadian Les Suprêmes (with three World titles and one bronze medal), NEXXICE (with two World titles, three silvers and two bronzes), the Russian Team Paradise (with three World titles and two bronze medals), the Finnish Team Unique (with one gold and one silver), as well as the American teams, Miami University (with one silver medal) and the Haydenettes (with four bronze medals.) Other medalists include the (now-discontinued) Canadian black ice with one silver medal and two bronze medals.

At the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships, Les Suprêmes made history by winning three consecutive World Championships. The previous consecutive world championships were achieved in 2000-2001 by Team Surprise, 2010-2011 by Rockettes and 2016-2017 by Team Paradise.

Although initially dominated by just a handful of teams and countries, the sport has arguably become more competitive over time, as supported by an analysis of the point 'gap' between the 1st and 10th placed teams. Starting from the 2005 WSSC (the first year the current ISU Judging System was introduced), the point 'gap' has tended to decrease over time:

WSSC (year) 1st vs. 10th place (∆ points)
2005 85.27 [1]
2006 77.56 [2]
2007 77.03 [3]
2008 63.06 [4]
2009 48.02 [5]
2010 56.42 [6]
2011 52.69 [7]
2012 38.32 [8]
2013 55.12 [9]
2014 56.32 [10]
2015 50.39 [11]
2016 53.32 [12]
2017 53.41 [13]
2018 40.03 [14]
2019 63.20 [15]
2020 Event not held [1]
2021 Event not held
2022 66.39 [16]
2023 61.76 [17]
2024 56.92 [18]
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