Preview, full schedule and how to watch Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Madison Chock & Evan Bates live
U.S. Figure Skating Championships 2026: Stars to watch
While Malinin has established himself at the top of the skating world, two-time Olympian Jason Brown has remained steady as ever as the second-best U.S. man. Brown finished second to Malinin at the 2023 and 2024 nationals.
He missed the 2025 event as he dealt with equipment issues, but roared back to finish as the second-best American man at the World Championships last March (in eighth).
The men’s U.S. team will send three skaters to Milan, and the likes of Andrew Torgashev, Maxim Naumov, Jimmy Ma and Camden Pulkinen will hope to make their mark in St. Louis.
Despite entering as the two-time defending U.S. champion, Glenn will face stiff competition, most notably from the aforementioned Liu, who made her return to competitive skating last season and has gone from strength to strength since.
Isabeau Levito, the 2024 world silver medallist, is another to keep an eye on, along with 2018 Olympic bronze medallist Bradie Tennell, a two-time U.S. champ herself.
Chock and Bates come to St. Louis as the heavy favourites to win. Since Beijing 2022, the duo has dominated the global scene, winning World Championships gold medals in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
This season, they won their third straight Grand Prix title as well.
Other ice dance contenders include Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, who finished second and third at their Grand Prix assignments before taking sixth at the Final, along with Olympic medallists Maia and Alex Shibutani, who are returning to the U.S. championships for the first time since 2018.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko as well as Caroline Green and Michael Parsons also look to factor in what is set to be a highly competitive ice dance event.
In the pairs event, Efimova and Mitrofanov will be expecting a strong challenge for the title from Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. The two teams scored within six points of each other during the 2025–26 Grand Prix Final season.
