WFSA Ranking 2025: Mid-Season Update

It’s hard to believe, but six months of 2025 have already flown by and we’ve had eight contests across four continents – that’s already more than we used to get in an entire calendar year a decade ago! With plenty more contests still to come before the year is out, now seems like a good time to take stock of how those contests have shaped the rankings so far for 2025 – remember, we start with a blank slate on January 1st, so everything below only reflects the contests that have taken part this year!

Amateur Division

The Am division looks like it may be dominated by one man these year: Canada’s Orson Merry, who’s taken the top spot in both contests he’s entered so far in 2025. However, will there be enough contests in North America for him to keep that spot without heading out across either the Pacific or the Atlantic this year? Jun Takahashi, who already left Japan to take gold at World Freestyle last month, could potentially steal this one with points from Japanese contests alone if Orson isn’t careful.

France’s Wolf Buck could be one to watch, too; his 2nd place at World Freestyle gave him a good chunk of points, and while he’s currently 15 points off the top spot, if Paderborn comes through with another typically large Amateur division this year, a good placement there could send him up the rankings.

While Orson is currently in the lead, keep an eye on this man: Wolf Buck is in a good position to sweep into the top spot based on the rest of the contest schedule for the year.

Photo by Tony Gale

Pro Division

The top of this division is looking pretty close right now – Yuzuki’s second place at World Freestyle lands him at the top of the division, but with only a two-and-a-half point gap between them, Denham Hill is breathing down his neck. Tobias Bamacher breaks the tie with Ichinoshin Suzuki based on their finishing positions at World Freestyle, and Ikkei Nagao sits just one point behind them! This is still basically anyone’s division – but with Denham sitting out Paderborn this year, the smart money is on Tobias Bamacher unless Denham and Yuzuki can grab some points from elsewhere.

Tobias Bamacher has quietly been laying down solid contest runs at every event he enters for a couple of years. Could this be his turn to take the top spot in the global rankings?

Photo by Tony Gale

Masters Division

Italy’s Paolo Demurtas goes into the second half of 2025 sitting pretty atop the rankings, but can he keep the position for the next six months? Traditionally, a lot of skaters in the masters division don’t tend to go to a lot of events, so it depends who in the list is going to put in the effort to go to the rest of the events this year.

I hear on the grapevine that Portugal’s Joao Soares is looking to rank high this year; if that translates to him racking up some frequent flier miles, that could lead to an interesting battle between him and the Italian.

Paolo Demurtas has won every contest he entered since moving into the Masters division; can he keep that going to end the year with the top rank?

Photo by Marius Constantin

Women’s Division

The endless battle between the two Romanian women, Rhiana Grigore and Carmen Ionita, continues unabated in 2025. Rhiana is determined to end the year at the top of the ranking, and her recent trip to LA for the mixed Pro-Am at the US Open provided some much-needed points to land her there mid-way through the year. But can she hold onto it? With just four points between Rhiana’s 1st place and Carmen’s 5th, this is an incredibly tightly-fought division this year. And that’s not even mentioning the Japanese women in 2nd, 4th, and 6th – Hitomi Komatsu, Kai Tanabe, and Misato Komatsu – any of whom could still steal the crown, or the US’ Marksman sisters in 3rd and 8th, both of whom could climb to the top with some international travel before the year is out.

Don’t sleep on Eva Grigore, too – the third Romanian in the division put down an incredible run at World Freestyle and could be a secret contender for the top place this year! This is an exciting one to watch, that’s for sure.

Rhiana took the top spot at Paderborn 2024; if she does the same again in 2025, will anyone be able to stop her ending the year as the top-ranked woman in freestyle?

Photo by Marius Constantin

So there we go! Keep your eye on the events calendar (remember: you can pick up the events in your favourite RSS reader by using this URL, or in your calendar app of choice using this one), and figure out which events you can slot into your travel schedule to rack up some extra points and keep climbing the rankings. Six months is a long time and a lot can happen before the year’s out, so practice your routines and get out there!