Olympic Figure Skating 2026 Top Stars, Pairs and Event Schedule

The United States figure skating team comes into the 2026 Winter Olympics with lofty expectations.

Ilia Malinin is the gold-medal favorite in the men's event, while Madison Chock and Evan Bates are expected to win in the ice dance.

Team USA also has a few medal hopefuls in the women's event, led by Alysa Liu.

The figure skating schedule in Milan gets underway on Friday with the team event. The United States is the reigning gold medalist in the team event.

The full Olympic figure skating schedule can be found here on the Olympics' official website.

Ilia Malinin

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It feels like it's gold medal or bust for Ilia Malinin in Milan.

The 21-year-old has been the most dominant male figure skating in this Olympic cycle with two world championships and four American titles.

Malinin's last loss at a world or American championship occurred back in 2023.

He hasn't just won the men's title at the top competitions, he's blown out the other skaters with his scoring.

It's hard to put that much pressure on a singular athlete going into an Olympics, but Malinin has set such a high standard for himself that a win seems to be the only acceptable result given how well he's skated in the build-up to Milan.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates have been equally as fantastic on the ice in the last four years as Malinin.

The American duo captured the last three world titles and has won every American title since 2022.

Anything outside of a gold medal in the ice dance discipline might be deemed as unacceptable for Chock and Bates given their dominance in the event.

Chock and Bates already have an Olympic gold medal from the team event in 2022, but they have not placed first in the ice dance.

With the Chock-Bates pairing and Malinin in the fold, the Americans could easily win the team event for the second straight Olympics, as long as those skaters choose to participate in the team event, which serves as the warm-up to all the individual events in figure skating.

Kaori Sakamoto

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Kaori Sakamoto is arguably the most important non-American competing in figure skating at the Milan Cortina Games.

The 25-year-old Japanese skater is a three-time world champion and she finished second to American Alysa Liu at the 2025 World Championships.

Sakamoto took home bronze in the women's event in 2022. She also won silver with Japan in the team event.

Liu is the reigning world champion, but Sakamoto has one of the highest levels of experience across all of the figure skating disciplines.

Sakamoto will be in the mix for gold in the women's event. Some experts may consider her to be the favorite to win the event.