Figure skating is the oldest sport at the Winter Olympics, with five events today: men's singles, women's singles, pairs, ice dance and the team event. This page is our starting point for Olympic skating, with the basics, the legends, the Milano Cortina 2026 results and links to our deeper stories on scoring, training, music, costumes and rivalries.
Key takeaways
- Figure skating was first held at the 1908 London Olympics and has been part of every Winter Games since the first one in 1924.
- There are five Olympic events. Ice dance was added in 1976 and the team event in 2014.
- At Milano Cortina 2026, the champions were Mikhail Shaidorov, Alysa Liu, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, and the United States team.
- The next Winter Games are in the French Alps in 2030, with figure skating now planned for Lyon.
- Every story on this page links to a longer one, so start wherever your curiosity takes you.
Plenty of adult skaters can trace their first lesson back to watching the Olympics on TV. If that's you, you're in good company. This page pulls together the basics of Olympic figure skating and points you to the rest of our Olympic coverage.
The five Olympic events
The Olympic program has men's singles, women's singles, pairs and ice dance, plus a team event that combines all four. Singles and pairs skaters perform a short program and a free skate, and ice dancers perform a rhythm dance and a free dance. In the team event, countries collect points from each skater's placing.
Pairs and ice dance can look alike, but they're different sports on the same ice. Pairs has overhead lifts, throws and side-by-side jumps, while ice dance focuses on rhythm, footwork and partnering, with no big jumps. Our explainer on every Olympic figure skating event goes through each one.
| Event | Programs | First Olympics |
|---|---|---|
| Men's singles | Short program and free skate | 1908 |
| Women's singles | Short program and free skate | 1908 |
| Pairs | Short program and free skate | 1908 |
| Ice dance | Rhythm dance and free dance | 1976 |
| Team event | One skater or team per segment, all four disciplines | 2014 |
A short history
Figure skating was on the program at the 1908 London Games and again in Antwerp in 1920, before the Winter Olympics existed. It moved to the first Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924 and has been held at every one since, which makes it the oldest Winter Olympic sport. Ice dance joined in 1976 at Innsbruck, and the team event in 2014 at Sochi.
For most of that history, skating was judged on the 6.0 system. After the pairs judging scandal at Salt Lake City in 2002, the ISU replaced it with a points-based system, first used at an Olympics in Turin in 2006.
How it's scored
Each program gets technical points for its jumps, spins and other elements, plus program component points for the skating as a whole, minus any deductions. Nine judges grade the quality of every element from -5 to +5, and a technical panel decides what each element was. Our page on how Olympic figure skating is scored walks through it, including the rule changes for the 2026-27 season.
Olympic legends
A few names come up in every conversation about Olympic skating. Sonja Henie of Norway won three straight Olympic titles, in 1928, 1932 and 1936. Dick Button of the United States won in 1948 and 1952, and he was the last man to repeat until Yuzuru Hanyu. Katarina Witt won for East Germany in 1984 and 1988, the only woman other than Henie to defend the title.
Michelle Kwan won five world titles and Olympic silver and bronze, and she's still one of the most loved skaters never to win Olympic gold. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won in 2014 and 2018 and was the first skater to score more than 300 points. Yuna Kim won South Korea's first Olympic figure skating gold in 2010 with world-record scores.
Ice dance has its own legends. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Boléro in 1984 earned twelve perfect 6.0s, and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada won five Olympic medals between 2010 and 2018. Our page on the best Olympic performances tells these stories in more detail.
Milano Cortina 2026
The 2026 Games in Italy had plenty of surprises. Mikhail Shaidorov won Kazakhstan's first Olympic figure skating gold after Ilia Malinin, the two-time world champion, fell twice in the free skate. Alysa Liu came from third after the short program to become the first American woman to win since 2002. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won Japan's first Olympic pairs medal, with a world-record free skate.
In ice dance, France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron beat Madison Chock and Evan Bates by 1.43 points, in a result that's still debated. The United States won the team event ahead of Japan and Italy. Our page on figure skating at Milano Cortina 2026 has the full results, and the Rink Report roundup covers the Games as they happened.
More Olympic stories
Each of these pages takes one part of Olympic skating and goes deeper. They're written for fans, and for adult skaters who like to borrow a little from the best.
- How Olympic figure skaters train, and what adult skaters can borrow
- How Olympic figure skating is scored
- The best Olympic performances of all time
- Memorable Olympic music
- Iconic Olympic costumes
- The greatest Olympic rivalries
- Figure skating at Milano Cortina 2026
Our Rink Report also has longer stories on the 2026 Olympians, including Alysa Liu, Ilia Malinin and Danny O'Shea, who won team gold at his first Olympics after 30 years in the sport. They're a good read if you want the people behind the results.
What's next
The next Winter Olympics are in the French Alps in 2030. In June 2026 the IOC approved a revised plan that moves the ice sports, figure skating included, from Nice to Lyon, though the exact venue hadn't been chosen. Between Games, the World Championships and the Grand Prix series are the best places to follow the skaters you met in Milan.
And if watching makes you want to try it yourself, our guide to starting figure skating as an adult is the place to begin. Every Olympian started with a first lesson too.
Sources
History and results come from the IOC's own reference documents and official results. Details on individual skaters come from the sources listed on each of our Olympic pages.
- International Olympic Committee, Figure skating history at the Olympic Winter Games (reference document).
- Olympics.com, Figure skating medallists, Milano Cortina 2026.
- Olympics.com, Sonja Henie, and History.com, Dick Button wins second Olympic gold.
- ESPN and Olympics.com athlete profiles of Michelle Kwan, and Eurosport on Hanyu's 322.40 at the 2015 NHK Trophy.
- The Local, Olympic bosses approve venue changes for 2030 Winter Games (June 2026), and AP on the move from Nice to Lyon.
