Figure skating at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics ran from February 6 to 21 at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Assago, just outside Milan. The champions were the United States in the team event, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, Alysa Liu of the United States, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, and Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France. Here's how each event unfolded.
Key takeaways
- Mikhail Shaidorov won Kazakhstan's first Olympic figure skating gold after Ilia Malinin, who led the short program, fell twice in the free skate.
- Alysa Liu came from third after the short program to win, the first American woman to take the title since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
- Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara set a pairs free skate world record to win Japan's first Olympic pairs medal.
- France's Fournier Beaudry and 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 by a single point, ahead of Japan and the host country, Italy.
This page started life as a preview, back when the 2026 Games were still months away. Now that they're over, it's a record of what happened, with the results, the surprises and the stories people were still talking about weeks later.
The Games at a glance
All figure skating events were held at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Assago, the arena known the rest of the year as the Unipol Forum. The team event opened the program on February 6, and the exhibition gala closed it on February 21. The table shows when each event ran and who won the medals.
| Event (dates) | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team event (Feb 6 to 8) | United States | Japan | Italy |
| Ice dance (Feb 9 to 11) | Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, FRA | Madison Chock and Evan Bates, USA | Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, CAN |
| Men (Feb 10 to 13) | Mikhail Shaidorov, KAZ | Yuma Kagiyama, JPN | Shun Sato, JPN |
| Pairs (Feb 15 to 16) | Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, JPN | Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, GEO | Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, GER |
| Women (Feb 17 to 19) | Alysa Liu, USA | Kaori Sakamoto, JPN | Ami Nakai, JPN |
Team event
Ten countries entered the team event, collecting points for each skater's placing across the four disciplines. The United States team of Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Ellie Kam, Danny O'Shea, Madison Chock and Evan Bates won by a single point, keeping the title the Americans won in Beijing. Japan took silver and Italy won bronze on home ice.
Kam and O'Shea skated a personal best in their free skate, which turned out to matter in a one-point finish. O'Shea had been competing for 30 years and was at his first Olympics, and our story on Danny O'Shea is a lovely read for any adult skater. Malinin also landed a backflip in his team event short program, the move the ISU made legal again in 2024.
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Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France won with 225.82, a new team that only came together in 2025. Fournier Beaudry had skated for Canada until 2024, and Cizeron, the 2022 champion with Gabriella Papadakis, became the first skater to win back-to-back ice dance titles with different partners. Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the three-time world champions, took silver with 224.39.
The margin was only 1.43 points, and the French judge's marks drew criticism, since they put the French team 7.71 points ahead in the free dance, the widest gap on the panel. The ISU said a range of scores is normal, and U.S. Figure Skating did not appeal. Both teams train at the same rink in Montreal under the same coaches.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada won bronze with 217.74 at their third Olympics together, their first Olympic podium. It came three years after Gilles was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and our story on Piper Gilles tells it in full.
Men's singles
Ilia Malinin arrived as the two-time world champion and led after the short program with 108.16. In the free skate he fell twice, placed 15th in that segment and dropped to eighth overall. Afterward he talked about the pressure he'd been under and the online hate that came with it.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan was fifth after the short program. He landed five quads in his free skate, scored 198.64 and won with 291.58, Kazakhstan's first Olympic gold in figure skating and its first Winter Olympic gold of any kind since 1994. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan took silver with 280.06 and his teammate Shun Sato bronze with 274.90.
Pairs
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan were fifth after the short program, where a lift went wrong. Their free skate scored 158.13, a pairs free skating world record, and they won with 231.24. It was Japan's first Olympic medal of any color in pairs.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava took silver with 221.75, Georgia's first medal at any Winter Olympics. Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, who had led after the short program, won bronze with 219.09.
Women's singles
Ami Nakai of Japan led after the short program, with Kaori Sakamoto second and Alysa Liu third on 76.59. In the free skate, Liu scored 150.20 to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park and won with 226.79. She had retired at 16 and come back on her own terms, and she became the first American woman to win the event since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
Sakamoto, at her last Olympics, took silver with 224.90, and Nakai won bronze with 219.16. Amber Glenn was 13th after the short program and climbed to fifth after an excellent free skate. Our stories on Alysa Liu, Kaori Sakamoto and Amber Glenn go behind the results.
Other stories from Milan
Music made headlines twice. Spain's Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté only got clearance for his Minions program music at the last minute, and Czech ice dancers Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek drew criticism for skating partly to AI-generated music. Our page on memorable Olympic music has both stories.
The ice dance judging also started a wider debate about how much one judge can sway a close result. Our page on how Olympic figure skating is scored explains how the panel works, and the Rink Report roundup covers the Games day by day.
After Milan
Many of the Olympians met again at the World Championships in Prague in March. Malinin won his third straight world title, Sakamoto won her fourth in the last competition of her career, Hase and Volodin won pairs, and Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron won ice dance. Liu didn't compete in Prague.
The next Winter Olympics are in the French Alps in 2030. In June 2026 the IOC approved a plan to move the ice sports, figure skating included, from Nice to Lyon. Until then, our Olympic figure skating guide has the rest of our Olympic stories in one place.
Sources
Results come from the official Olympic and ISU results, and the stories behind them from the reporting listed below. Scores are as published at the time of each event.
- Olympics.com, Figure skating medallists, Milano Cortina 2026, and the ISU's event page.
- NBC Olympics, All the Olympic champions in figure skating at Milan Cortina 2026, and Olympedia's 2026 venue and event listings.
- Time, U.S. wins gold in team figure skating, and AOL on Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea (February 2026).
- AP on the ice dance judging and the ISU's response; Olympic.ca, Gilles and Poirier skate to ice dance bronze.
- The Astana Times, Kazakhstan's Shaidorov wins historic Olympic gold, and AP on the men's free skate.
- International Skating Union, Miura and Kihara soar to historic Olympic pair skating gold and Incredible Alysa Liu strikes gold.
- NBC Sports, World Figure Skating Championships results 2026, and Golden Skate on the Prague ice dance.
- The Local, Olympic bosses approve venue changes for 2030 Winter Games (June 2026).
