Everything to know about the U.S. Olympic figure skating team

ST. LOUIS -- Punctuated by the latest showstopping and backflipping performance by Ilia Malinin and the electrifying trio of Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships officially concluded with the announcement of the 2026 Olympic team on Sunday.

After four days of memorable competition, emotional performances, compelling drama on and off the ice and entertaining press conferences, the event won't soon be forgotten. And, perhaps most importantly, it highlighted how strong the American contingent is with less than a month to go before the Olympics get underway in Milan, Italy. Here's what we learned in St. Louis.

Women's singles

Let's get this out of the way first: Believe the hype. After an incredible two nights of competition, the women delivered in St. Louis with one sensational program after another.

Amber Glenn, who entered the week as the two-time defending champion, closed out the short program and the free skate -- and nearly brought the house down on both occasions. Her short program, set to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," received a record-breaking 83.05 score behind her trademark triple axel and her strong jumping and artistry.

She followed it up on Friday night with another nearly-perfect free skate, in which she nailed her triple axel yet again and landed both a triple flip-triple toe loop and a triple loop-double Axel-double Axel sequence. After just about everyone in the arena jumped to their feet in ovation, Glenn received a 150.50 for a total score of 233.55 -- both new personal bests, and became the first American woman to win three consecutive titles since Michelle Kwan. The 26-year-old Glenn, who becomes the oldest U.S. women's singles skater to debut at the Olympics in 98 years, has had an unorthodox journey in the sport -- and is certainly now among the frontrunners for Olympic gold in Milan.

Liu, the reigning world champion and current Grand Prix Final champion, continued her hot season with two dazzling performances and her second consecutive runner-up finish at nationals. The 20-year-old had retired from the sport in 2022 following an Olympic appearance, but returned two years ago. Her short program earned the highest score in the event's history at 81.11 -- until, that is, Glenn superseded it moments later. Liu was equally impressive on Friday night as she debuted her Lady Gaga-themed free skate featuring several triple jumps and a fan-favorite choreographed sequence in which the crowd clapped along. Despite her age, she is the only singles skater to have been to the Olympics before and she said she was excited to experience it with fans and in a post-COVID environment.

Rounding out the Olympic team is 18-year-old Levito. The 2023 U.S. champion and 2024 world silver medalist secured the second-highest free skate score (148.73) on Friday behind a program with seven triple jumps and elegant execution. Levito, whose grandmother lives in Milan, called it a "perfect" week and said it was "just crazy" that her family would be able to watch her in person at the Olympics.

In a high-energy press conference on Friday night that showcased their overwhelming joy, the trio showered praise on one another and couldn't help but show their mutual affection. All three are legitimate Olympic medal contenders, and it seems all-but-certain that at least one in the group will break the 20-year Olympic medal drought in women's singles. But that pressure didn't seem to faze any of them on Friday. In fact, none of them seemed to even be thinking about that.

"Honestly, I am just so excited and stoked about the Village," Levito said on Friday. "I see TikToks, I see videos, I see articles about it, and I hear about it firsthand, but I just am so excited about that. I just know it'll be the time of my life.

"I feel like I'm not going to be worried about the reason I'm sent there for, but that's just like an added part of it. It's like the side quest, but really the adventure is going to be the Village. That's what I'm stoked about. So none of that is my concern. You just do your job. And honestly, that's when I do best, when I'm distracted."

Glenn added that the only time she would be concerned about securing a podium spot would be during the team event. "Because then you feel a responsibility to put your best out there to earn points to get a medal because that is something that you're sharing," she said.

Men's singles

Malinin entered the competition as the three-time defending champion and the most dominant skater in the world, capable of doing skills few thought were even possible just a few years ago. Even after scaling down his program in the free skate, due largely to a recent boot change, and lessening his amount of quad jumps, Malinin still earned his fourth consecutive title and a staggering 57.26 points separated him from the rest of the field after both segments.

The "Quad God," was seen wearing a varsity letter-style jacket with that nickname on the front and "4A" (a reference to the quadruple axel he's become known for but didn't display on Saturday) on the back around the arena -- and yes, he remains very much the man to beat entering the Olympics in Milan.

While his spot on the team was never in doubt, he still seemed relieved to make his first Olympic team (he was an alternate in 2022).

"I'm just so excited for this Olympic experience, this Olympic environment," he said. "They've told me so many great stories, how it's such a different event and I'm just so excited to go there and to represent the USA and hopefully go for that Olympic gold."

The real question as skaters arrived to St. Louis was which other men would join Malinin in Milan. Jason Brown, the beloved two-time Olympian and 2015 national champion, looked to have perhaps the best chance, but a disastrous free skate on Saturday all but eliminated those hopes. He finished in eighth place.

Two men did enough to punch their tickets. Andrew Torgashev, the 2025 runner-up, was in fifth place after the short program but had a phenomenal showing on Saturday -- landing both of his quad toe loops -- and jumped up the standings. After a challenging season, he was ecstatic about what he had done.

"It is everything I was training so I'm glad it came together today," Torgashev said about his free skate. "Throughout the Grand Prix [competitions], I wasn't showing my best, so this was a good run-through for myself. I will continue to work at it. I accepted a little while ago that regardless if I can call myself an Olympian or not one day, I think the Olympic spirit is in all of us -- this resilience, this drive, this tenacity that brings us all coming back to the rink every single day."

Torgashev was the first to be announced to the Olympic team during Sunday's selection show, and he appeared to still be in disbelief as he walked out onto the ice.

"The reality is better than I imagined," he told the crowd moments later about seeing his childhood dream come true.

The third man selected was Maxim Naumov, and there was perhaps no one who had the crowd more on their side throughout the week. The 24-year-old lost his parents, former world champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, in the plane crash last year that killed all 67 people on board following a collision with a military helicopter. After a powerful short program, in which he held up a picture of himself with his parents from his childhood as he waited for his scores, Naumov followed it up with another stirring program on Saturday.

While there were some stumbles, and he stood waiting rinkside for the rest of the competition unclear of where he would finish, Naumov was understandably emotional when he realized he would finish top three, and he was flanked by hugs by many of his competitors, their coaches, and skating luminaries like Scott Hamilton. It was his best result ever at the national championships, after a series of fourth-place finishes, and he couldn't hide how much it meant to him.

The last conversation he had with his parents was about what he would need to do to make the team in 2026. "My dad laid out a, within a 45-minute conversation, he laid out a whole plan for the entire season of what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, when we're going to do it," Naumov said on Saturday. "... It's not been perfect by any means, but this is exactly what I think about very frequently -- is those exact words that night and I try every day to do that. So I owe everything to them."

On Sunday, he was introduced to the team by Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist. He called Naumov's inclusion "a dream come true for all of us," after everything Naumov has been through.

"We did it, we absolutely did it," Naumov said soon after. "We talked about the Olympics so much in our family. And it's what I've been thinking about since I was five years old."

Ice dance

There's been perhaps no one more consistent for U.S. Figure Skating over the past decade than Madison Chock and Evan Bates. The pair has been on the podium at the national championships every year since 2013, and won their record-breaking seventh title -- and fifth in a row -- on Saturday, behind yet another dominant performance showcasing their technical prowess and artistry.

"You embody everything that's great about this sport," 2018 Olympian Adam Rippon told the duo in an interview after they got off the ice.

Speaking to reporters later in the night, Bates called it their best free dance performance of the year. "We like to build momentum through the season and it's a great feeling going into a big event knowing you've skated well at the previous competition, and we are going to roll with that momentum into Milan," he said.

They've won virtually everything in the sport, including the previous three world championship titles and were a part of the (several-years-delayed) gold-medal winning team at the 2022 Games. But individual Olympic gold is just about the only thing that has eluded them. While they haven't officially announced their plans for beyond the Games, they have hinted this could be their final Olympics.

But like the women in the singles field, they were not thinking -- at least publicly -- about medals in St. Louis.

"We know what to do," Chock said on Saturday. "We have our plan and we're executing it. We don't plan on deviating from it. We're going to stick to it, trust ourselves, trust our team, and do what we know how to do, which is prepare and skate."

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik finished in second place -- their best-ever result at the national championships -- and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko came in third. Those results were good enough to earn both duos a spot on the team. Kolesnik and Carreira recently became American citizens, after lengthy processes for both, and it will mark the first Olympic appearance for all four skaters. Zingas called finding out they had been selected as "the best moment of my entire life."

While Carreira was in citizenship limbo for several years, she had to remain living in the United States, despite training in Canada, and that required her to cross the border nearly every day to go to practice. Ponomarenko was effusive in his admiration for her commitment to their shared dream. "She's an absolute trooper to do this every single day for four years and even more than four years," Ponomarenko said on Saturday. "So I'm so blessed to have a partner so determined to become [an] American and compete at the Olympics."

Pairs

While the Americans have been dominant in recent years in the other three disciplines, pairs has been the lone weak spot, and the country hasn't won an Olympic medal in the event since 1988. Unfortunately, after the week in St. Louis, that weakness only became more obvious.

Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov won their second straight national title on Friday behind two strong performances, becoming the first repeat champions in over a decade. Their 207.71 total score was more than 10 points better than the rest of the field and would be a great addition to the Olympic team. If, that is, they were eligible. Despite some last-minute efforts, and a multi-year process, Efimova was unable to secure her citizenship in time for Saturday's deadline. She expressed hope on Friday night in her press conference, but it was not to be.

Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, who finished in third place, are also not eligible to compete at the Olympics due to Parkman's lack of citizenship.

All that's to say, it was a very confusing pairs competition. So, who is going to the Olympics?

The only near-lock to make the team after Friday's competition was Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, who finished in second place. The duo, who won the national title in 2024, have had international success over the past several years, with a bronze medal at the 2024 Four Continents event and two Grand Prix medals this season, and will likely participate in the team event. On Friday, the 34-year-old O'Shea said that making the team would be a "dream come true" and something that he's thought about since he was four years old. O'Shea will be the oldest American pairs skater to compete at the Games since 1932.