U.S. Figure Skating Will Take Its Most Formidable Team to Winter Olympics

The Washington Post

15:04 JST, January 13, 2026

Next month’s Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics just might be what American figure skating has longed for: a breakout moment that could reinvigorate interest in a sport that once captivated audiences following the infamous saga between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

On Sunday, the sport’s national governing body selected perhaps its most formidable Olympic team in history. The team blends experience and exuberance, with four gold medal contenders among three disciplines. The United States’ collective strength makes it the prohibitive favorite for the team event, a relatively new competition entering its fourth Olympic cycle.

Ilia Malinin, figure skating’s most natural jumper, will be expected to win the gold medal in the men’s competition in Milan, but the most intriguing competitors to emerge from this past week’s U.S. championships were a trifecta of talented women.

Leading the way was Amber Glenn, who became the first three-time national champion since Michelle Kwan in 1999. Glenn had spent most of her career as a skater on the precipice, talented but seemingly incapable of putting together crisp performances in both phases of the competition.

Glenn, at 26 considered a late bloomer in the skating world, has emerged as an international threat at a time when Russia’s run of three consecutive women’s Olympic gold medalists is threatened by the country’s competition ban resulting from its war with Ukraine.

Glenn attributes her success to focusing on her mental health. Athletically speaking, it is a marvel how she has elevated her performances. Over the past two years, she has mastered launching herself forward to complete the triple axel, a jump so tricky that only a handful of women attempt it. Glenn projects a distinct, prowling quality across the ice that results in a smooth, speedy flow as she strides from one end to the other.

Her triple axel will not be the most explosive of the women’s competition in Milan – that distinction probably will go to Japan’s Ami Nakai – but it is focused, steady and complete. The major question for Glenn is whether she will thrive or stumble under the pressure of the Olympics.

Given the strength of the women’s field, she does not have much room for error.

One of her biggest challengers is her compatriot Alysa Liu. Once an ice wunderkind who won two senior national championships before she could get a learner’s permit, Liu is now a free-spirited 20-year-old who seems the least likely to succumb to pressure. She describes herself as an artist who does not care how she finishes at competitions – yet she places well. In her comeback season one year ago, Liu boogied her way to a world championship, skating to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park.” She continued that party until this past week, when she debuted a free skate to a medley of Lady Gaga tunes.

Pop-star bangers and Liu’s infectious showmanship were enough to bring an American audience to its feet, but the new program needed more. The Gaga medley lacked the intricate footwork between jumps that international judges value. Liu is not a particularly fast skater, and the fresh program felt slow, as if it needed a bit more seasoning before she could perform it with ease and confidence.

Following the competition, Liu revealed that she was returning to the disco program that won her a world championship. That seems sensible, though some may groan that she is repeating herself. But over two years, she has made subtle, impactful changes that make the program even more competitive – more complicated footwork here, a harder combination there. The biggest change is still to come: Liu is regaining her ability to jump that triple axel, a skill she has not landed cleanly in competition in five years.

Liu will need to raise the technical difficulty to vie for a gold medal; her infectious performance ability might not woo judges looking for a more classic aesthetic. But if she were to add the triple axel, she would be the presumptive favorite.

The third American woman, Isabeau Levito, employs a strategy that could not be more different from Liu’s. Levito employs deep knees to create a floating, airy quality on ice. Her strong edge work, rocking from one side of the blade to the other, allows her comfortably to dispatch jumps that do not use the toe pick.

Generally speaking, her issues come with triple jumps that employ the toe pick. Sometimes she uses the wrong side of the blade to launch into them; other times they do not have enough lift to fully rotate them in the air, which causes a small deduction.

Underneath the balletic delicacy, Levito portends sheer grit. She rises with the competition. Expect her to finish among the top six in Milan, and a clean performance certainly would make her a medal contender.

Taken together, the trio probably will end the United States’ 20-year Olympic medal drought in women’s figure skating. Two American women have not been on the podium since 2002, which is also the last year an American woman won a gold medal. Barring disaster, one of these slumps will end in Milan.

Standing in the way is another trio from Japan. Kaori Sakamoto, the three-time world champion and 2022 Olympic bronze medalist, enters as a sentimental favorite in her final season of competition. Mone Chiba, the country’s second-best skater, sports delightful edges but often struggles in the free skate. Up-and-comer Nakai has the power to pull an upset; she has a youthful, passionate skating style and the best triple axel of all the women. The lone Russian in the competition, Adeliia Petrosian, has demonstrated high technical ability but is untested on the world stage. She will be competing as a neutral athlete.

In the men’s competition, Malinin – the self-proclaimed but now universally acknowledged “Quad God” – reminded judges that he was human this past week. Malinin dazzled in his short program, racing across the ice, using the side of the blade outside of the body to launch into a huge quadruple lutz, spinning, sliding, throwing in a backflip for good measure.

The long program demonstrated Malinin’s more mature side – not because of what he did but because of what he didn’t do. After unusually rocky practices while trying to break in new boots, Malinin opted not to risk injury in uncomfortable footwear and instead to preserve his best programs for the Olympics. He landed three quadruple jumps in the free skate. His ideal program layout would feature seven, using six different entrances. He is the only man who is capable of such mania.

Malinin still won with the fewest quadruple jumps completed by an American champion in almost a decade. If he were to give such a performance at the Olympics, he might be beatable, but expect much more. Malinin won his most recent international event by more than 30 points – that would be about three good triple axels’ worth – and still had room to improve.

The biggest challenge to Malinin might be himself. Other medal contenders are the speedy Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato of Japan as well as Petr Gumennik, another Russian competing as a neutral athlete.

Malinin, a second-generation figure skater and first-generation American, will be joined by two men with similar backgrounds. Andrew Torgashev solidified his spot on the team with big, explosive jumps and a passionate presentation. Torgashev’s international record is spotty – he finished 22nd at the last world championships – but easily could finish in the top 10 in Milan if he is able to manage his nervousness in a way that has eluded him in the past.

Maxim Naumov showed his mettle in finishing third at nationals, breaking a three-year streak of finishing fourth. After a nail-biter of a competition, Naumov achieved his goal to make it to the Olympics as a tribute to his parents, who were killed in a plane crash almost a year ago.

Naumov’s performance last week showed a fortitude he had not displayed previously. The jump he most covets is the quadruple salchow, in which he picks up speed, sweeps one leg in front of the other and rotates four times. When he lands the jump, it is a beauty. Like Torgashev, a top-10 finish would be a respectable placement for him.

In ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates enter the competition as one of the country’s most decorated teams. Although they have won the past three world championships, they enter the Olympics with the most difficult path to victory of the top American prospects.

The competition for ice dance is intense, with teams from France, Canada, Italy and Britain vying for a place on the podium. Chock and Bates’s previous Olympics were marred by unusually unsmooth performances and falls.

Chock and Bates play by the rules in a sport in which there are many, which have made them particularly strong in the more restrictive short dance. They won their record seventh national championship, though, with a distinctive free dance, which blends paso doble, tango and flamenco to evoke Chock as a matador trying to tame Bates as a bull. Expect them to challenge for a medal, perhaps gold if another team makes a mistake; they have been the most consistent of their competitors over the past four years.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, the second American team, have impressed judges with their power and enthusiasm. A sharp performance could land them in the top six, whereas Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko eye a top-10 finish.

Rounding out the American squad are two capable, if volatile pairs: Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, and Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. Both pairs have posted big scores and can be competitive. O’Shea and Kam focused on dynamic lifts, whereas Chan and Howe impress with unison and musicality. Both share the same nemesis: jumping side by side. At their best, both pairs are outside chances for bronze medals but may land in the top six. This year’s top pairs hail from Canada, Germany, Georgia and Japan.

Taken together, the U.S. squad has one interesting statistic. Four members of the team – Malinin, Naumov, Ponomarenko and Torgashev – are first-generation Americans who are the sons of Soviet figure skaters.