Prior to Russia's ban from international figure skating, the Russians had won more medals at the world championships than any other country.

It's hard to imagine a better world championships for the American figure skating team, which captured gold in three of the four disciplines over the weekend for the first time in its history, and will take all of that momentum into an Olympic year.

With less than a year until the Olympics, the world titles from Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu and Madison Chock and Evan Bates have even more weight.