Meet the U.S. Olympic figure skating team: Ilia Malinin heads a powerful squad – The Athletic
The U.S. Olympic figure skating team is set.
On Sunday, at the conclusion of this week’s national championships, U.S. Figure Skating announced the team for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, and it should be one of the nation’s strongest teams yet.
The Americans boast top gold medal contenders in three disciplines. Ilia Malinin is the best men’s singles skater in the world. Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito give the U.S. three medal hopefuls in women’s singles. And Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who have owned the ice dance competition in recent years, will vie for their first Olympic medal in the event.
The team also features several first-time Olympians, including Maxim Naumov, who lost his parents when a plane carrying several members of the U.S. figure skating community collided with a helicopter and crashed last January in Washington, D.C.
Here’s the full team for next month’s Olympics.
Women’s singles
Amber Glenn
Glenn, 26, was a former U.S. junior champion before stepping away from the sport for mental health reasons in 2015. When she returned, she struggled to match that form at the senior level. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she added a triple axel jump to her repertoire and found a new gear. Now, she’s won three straight U.S. championships, as well as last year’s Grand Prix Final — the culmination of the sport’s annual top-circuit season — and heads to the Olympics as the U.S. No. 1, ranked No. 3 in the world.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Glenn told NBC’s Andrea Joyce. “I’ve been working at this for so, so long.”
Isabeau Levito
Levito’s teammates and good friends Glenn and Liu have won most of the top hardware, but Levito is right there with them. The 18-year-old from New Jersey was the silver medalist at the 2024 world championships and the 2023 U.S. champion. She doesn’t have a major international gold medal like Liu and Glenn, but she’s ranked No. 5 in the world and will have her eyes on a medal in her first Olympics.
“This was my goal and my dream, and it just feels so special it came true,” she said.
Alysa Liu
The Oakland, Calif., native was the youngest member of the Olympic team at the COVID-impacted Beijing Games in 2022. She retired shortly after, then returned two years ago. Now 20, she’s the reigning world champion and a top contender for gold. She finished second to Glenn at this week’s U.S. championships.
“I’m not the youngest this time, so I’m feeling older,” she said. “And there’s people in the crowd, so I’m feeling the support.”
Alternates: Bradie Tennell, Sarah Everhardt, Starr Andrews
Men’s singles
Ilia Malinin
What else can you say about the “Quad God?” Malinin is the clear world No. 1 and an overwhelming favorite for gold in Milan. At 21 years old, he might just be getting started.
“They’ve told me so many great stories, how (the Olympics is) just such a different event,” Malinin said of his parents, both former Olympians. “And I’m just so excited to go there and to represent Team USA and to hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”
Maxim Naumov
Nearly a year after an unimaginable tragedy, Naumov had one of the best weeks of his skating life at just the right time. After three straight fourth-place finishes in this event, he took third this year and earned his first Olympic spot. He’ll be making his debut on the major international stage and is a long shot to contend for a medal, but just getting here is a remarkable and meaningful feat for the 24-year-old.
“Every message, every letter, every call, every text, I see it,” he said, “and it helps me just keep pushing through the difficult days, getting up and going to bed. Thank you, everyone.”
Andrew Torgashev
The 24-year-old finished second at the U.S. championships for the second straight year and is headed to his first Olympics. Ranked No. 23 in the world, he also has an outside shot for a medal in Milan, but the Florida native and son of two competitive figure skaters who grew up dreaming of this moment will be ready for his chance.
“The reality is better than what I imagined,” he said. “My God, this is awesome.”
Alternates: Jason Brown, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Jacob Sanchez
Ice dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates
The three-time defending world champions in the ice dance will head to Milan as the gold medal favorites. They’ve won just about everything else in ice dance except for an Olympic medal. (They were gold medalists in 2022 in the team event.) It’s the fourth Olympics for them as a team and first since they married in 2024.
“A little extra bling to shine,” Chock said of what’s different for them this time, flashing her wedding ring.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik
It’s the first Olympics for this duo, as well. Zingas is a 23-year-old Cypriot-American. The 24-year-old Kolesnik is originally from Ukraine. As a pair, they’ve had two top-five finishes at the Grand Prix Final and finished sixth at the Four Continents Championships (which excludes Europe). They’re ranked No. 8 in the world.
“It was the best moment of my entire life,” Zingas said of making the team.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko
The Canada-born Carreira, 25, got her U.S. citizenship in November, making her eligible for these Olympics just in time with her partner, Ponomarenko, 25.
“We’ve been very stressed,” Carreira said of the citizenship process. “It feels so good to be American. I can’t wait to represent Team USA.”
Like many on this list, Ponomarenko comes from a family of skaters. His parents are Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, the 1992 Olympic ice dance champions.
“It feels unreal,” he said. “Growing up watching their videos, watching their Olympic performance, it was special. Going to the Olympics, a second generation, it’s unreal.”
Alternates: Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville, Oona Brown and Gage Brown
Pairs
Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam
O’Shea, 34, and Kam, 21, began skating together in the 2022-23 season, and now they’re headed to their first Olympics. Ranked No. 6 in the world, they finished seventh last year at world championships, fifth at the Grand Prix Final and fourth at the Four Continents Championships. O’Shea will be the oldest U.S. pairs skater since 1932.
“It was a lot of ups and downs in the process, and Danny definitely believed in us from Day 1,” Kam said of the team. “But it took a bit for me to catch up. Once we turned the dream into a plan, that was when I kind of had to start believing.”
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea head to their first Olympics as the top U.S. pairs team. (Keith Gillett / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe
Chan, 28, and Howe, 29, ranked 15th in the world, are headed to their first Olympics after rising from eighth after the short program to fourth.
“Me and Emily, it was a crazy roller coaster,” Howe said, “and through it all, I told her after the short (program), ‘Hey, job’s not finished.’ And now here we are.”
Chan and Howe got the nod over the team of Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, who finished third but were not eligible for the Olympic team because Parkman is not a U.S. citizen. Both pairs teams this week finished behind Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, but that pair was not eligible to compete in the Olympics either. Efimova is also not a U.S. citizen, and a last-minute effort to obtain a passport didn’t come through in time.
Alternates: Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy, Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez, Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard
