The United States is sending a powerhouse group to compete in figure skating when the 2026 Winter Olympics begin in Italy in February. While the U.S. has always been dominant in the sport (Americans brought home the gold in both the men’s and team events during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing), this year’s roster has even loftier expectations.
Expected to dominate
Heading into the 2026 U.S. figure skating championships, where the Olympic team is chosen, many felt the U.S. would be “selecting the greatest American skating team to ever compete at the Olympic Games,” said USA Today. The selection of the final team showed this “potential was affirmed,” as the U.S. lineup is “strong and deep, with medal favorites in four of the five events.”
Much of the hype has centered around the women on the team, who delivered at the U.S. championships with “one sensational program after another,” said ESPN. These skaters are being called among the strongest ever seen on a U.S. team — a team that already features star alumni like Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi and Dorothy Hamill. The men on the team are equally dominant this year. Still, this is all concerning U.S. singles, as “pairs has been the lone weak spot, and the country hasn’t won an Olympic medal in the event since 1988.”
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‘A mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars’
The U.S. team still must prove how strong it will be, and how many medals it can rack up, as it heads to Italy with a “mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars,” said NPR. There are 16 total skaters, including men’s single skaters Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev. Malinin is considered the U.S. superstar, seen as “Team USA’s best hope for men’s figure skating gold, as one of the sport’s most revolutionary athletes.” He is the son of Uzbek Olympians and has a “penchant for gravity-defying quadruple jumps.” Naumov, another top skater, is dedicating his Olympic performance to his parents, who died in the Washington, D.C., plane crash in January 2025.
The women’s single skaters, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito and Alysa Liu, are equally impressive. Glenn “just won her third consecutive U.S. title” and at the age of 26, will be the “oldest U.S. ladies’ singles skater to compete at the Olympics since 1927,” said CNN. Liu retired at age 16 following her first Olympics, but “last season, she came out of retirement — and shockingly won the world championship.” She was the first American woman in 19 years to win the world title.
All eyes will also be on the ice dancing this year, as the U.S. looks to dominate in that category as well. The “three-time defending world champions in the ice dance,” married couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates, will “head to Milan as the gold medal favorites,” said The Athletic. The pair has won “just about everything else in ice dance except for an Olympic medal,” though they did take home a gold medal in the team event in 2022. The other ice dance duos, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, are also considered strong competitors.
