MILAN – After three days of dramatic and often surprising competition, the United States won the Olympic gold medal in the figure skating team competition Sunday night.
It was not easy.
After holding a five-point lead heading into the final day of competition, the Americans found themselves tied with Japan entering the final segment of the competition, the men’s free skate.
It will all be due to two-time world champion Ilya Malinin in his first Olympics. The 21-year-old suffered a nervous breakdown during her short program on Saturday and stepped out of her triple Axel and then under-rotated her quad Lutz, leaving her in a surprise second place – a rarity for her and more than 10 points from first.
The stakes couldn’t have been higher on Sunday as his teammates anxiously watched him take the ice with his luck.
“I was more nervous than seeing Ilya [skating] Myself,” said team captain and pairs skater Danny O’Shea.
Malinin wasn’t perfect Sunday, nor did he attempt the quadruple Axel for which he has become famous — he is the only skater in history to land the jump in competition — but it was more than enough. Nicknamed the “Quad God”, he performed five quadruple jumps while his spoken voice echoed over the loudspeakers as part of his “The Voice” musical, and excited the crowd.
When he performed his now-signature backflip at the end of the event – prompting 24-time major tennis champion Novak Djokovic to rise to his feet in the stands and shout, “What?” With his head in his hands – that was all but one punctuation mark. He ultimately earned 200.03 as his teammates began kissing-and-crying him on the podium.
However, it was not over. Not officially, anyway.
Japan’s Shun Sato then took the ice to end the contest. Although he landed three quad jumps of his own and executed a clean skate, it was only enough for 194.86 points. His teammates consoled him as his score was announced. About 50 feet away, Americans jumped up and down and hugged.
Final score: United States 69, Japan 68.
“We came here to do one thing and we accomplished it,” Malinin said.
Italy earned the bronze medal with 60 points after Matteo Rizzo’s emotional and nearly perfect, though less difficult, program. By the end of the program, long before their scores were announced, many of their teammates had tears in their eyes, knowing that they had done enough to secure only the third Olympic medal for Italians in figure skating.
It was the second Olympic gold for the Americans in the team event, but the first in which the team was able to celebrate with a podium ceremony. The competition in 2022 was initially won by athletes representing the Russian Olympic Committee, before they were disqualified for a positive drug test. The Americans received their medals more than two years later in Paris in 2024.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, three-time ice dance world champions, were the only members of both teams in 2022 and 2026. She won the short program on Friday and the free dance on Saturday to contribute a crucial 20 points for the Americans.
Although Eli Kam and O’Shea were nowhere near impressive, they were the unexpected heroes for the team on Sunday. Having finished fifth in the pairs short program two days earlier, they knew they would have to do better than that to ensure the Japanese team did not nearly erase its current lead. The Japanese pair of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the segment, but Kama and O’Shea performed one of the best programs of their careers. Ultimately they finished fourth, two points behind the Japanese team.
“He [was] Our goal, maybe to take a point or two of pressure off the rest of the guys on Team USA, and be able to contribute and help,” O’Shea said. “And we did more of that today.”
This made all the difference.
The pairs program was followed by the women’s free skate. This marks the Olympic debut of three-time defending national champion Amber Glenn. Alyssa Liu competed in the short program, and the team used one of its two allowed replacements to swap. Glenn was shaky at the beginning of the program, spinning out of her triple Axel and then struggling with another jumping combination.
Glenn rallied during the second half of her program, but appeared dejected at the end. She got 138.62 points, which ultimately took her to a surprising third place.
Glenn said, “I didn’t feel or perform how I wanted to.” “I wasn’t feeling good physically. My legs felt heavy, I was tired, I wasn’t feeling my best and I’ve been training incredibly well here.”
She chalked it up to becoming a “first-time Olympian”, but said she was proud of her mental strength to complete the program. Kaori Sakamoto finished first with 148.62 points, putting Japan tied with the United States on the leaderboard.
Speaking to reporters before the end of the event, Sakamoto said he was proud of his team, regardless of the final result.
Sakamoto said, “In my eyes, everyone has performed for the gold medal, and so it doesn’t matter what color medal we get.”
