MILAN — Team USA has made its picks for who can secure figure skating team event gold at the 2026 Winter Games, and it will include the ‘Quad God.’
The competition day will also feature pairs’ and women’s free skate. Amber Glenn will make her Olympic debut for the women, with Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea doing the pairs again.
Whether Malinin would do both men’s events in the team event was a big question and gave the U.S. a complex decision for its young prodigy given the schedule. Doing both events means he has a quick turnaround for the all-important men’s individual event, which begins Tuesday, Feb. 10.
The plan going into the team event, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not allowed to speak publicly on the matter, was for Malinin to skate the men’s short program only, then U.S. officials would assess the its medal position to decide if he was is needed in the long program.
Turns out, the U.S. is aggressively going for gold.
Malinin skated the men’s short program on Saturday, Feb. 7 and didn’t have a spectacular performance with a second place finish behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, earning Team USA nine points. Afterward, Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated the ice dance free dance and earned another 10 points for the U.S., ending Day 2 in first place with 44 total points. Japan is in second place (39) and Italy is in third with (37).
Malinin’s inclusion indicates Team USA feels it needs him to secure first place, and doesn’t feel comfortable about going with the other Olympic men skaters in Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev. The men are the final group to perform in the team event, so the U.S. will have a good sense of what is needed from Malinin in order to win the team event.
He certainly can cement the U.S. winning team gold, but the wobbly performance in the short program does raise some concern. That’s on top of the major focus of him now having to do a total of four performances in one week, questioning if it will fatigue Malinin and hurt his chances of capturing men’s singles gold.
Malinin told reporters after his short program he came into the competition ‘with only 50% of my full potential’ as ‘that’s the way I pace myself, leading up to the individual’ men’s event.
‘Of course, that wasn’t the perfect, ideal 100% skate that I would’ve wanted to have,’ he said, ‘but for the standard I set myself today, I think I achieved that.’
Glenn gets the nod in the women’s free skate after Alysa Liu handled the short program. Liu finished in second − behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto − to earn the U.S. nine points. Japan will again be a stiff challenge, but the reigning U.S. champion is capable of a first place finish and get another 10 points.
Kam and O’Shea will return after they did the short program. Despite a performance that included a big fall, the pair finished in fifth and earned six points.
Listen to ‘Milan Magic’ on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube or on USA TODAY.
Olympic figure skating team event day 3 schedule
The final day of the figure skating team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics takes place on Sunday, Feb. 8.
- Women’s free skate: 1:30 p.m. ET
- Pair’s free skate: 2:45 p.m. ET
- Men’s free skate: 3:55 p.m. ET
