Updated February 7, 2026 at 4:11 PM MST
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MILAN — Team USA held its lead Saturday on the second day of the figure skating team event at the Winter Olympics, getting one step closer to defending its gold medal from 2022.
The team event, which debuted in 2014, pits the world's 10 top-ranked countries against each other via representatives in each of the four skating disciplines: men's, women's, pairs and ice dance.
Countries get points (1-10) depending on how they score in the first two events (short program and rhythm dance), and the top five advance to the final round (free skate and free dance).
The first half of the event ended in a relative upset on Saturday, when U.S. phenom Ilia Malinin — undefeated in major competitions since 2023 — finished preliminarily in second place. He scored nearly 10 points behind 2022 silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who earned a season-best score and a roaring reception from the crowd.
But Malinin didn't seem phased by the result of his Olympic debut, praising Kagiyama's ebullient performance and telling reporters it had long been his plan "to come into this team competition with only 50% of my full potential."
"Of course it wasn't the perfect ideal 100% [program] that I was wanting to have, but for the standard I set myself today I think I achieved that," added Malinin.
The gold medal favorite had the packed Milano Ice Skating Arena roaring during his warm-ups, and even more so during his program when he landed a backflip — becoming the first skater to do so legally in five decades (the move was banned in competition from 1977 to 2024).
Malinin still scored high enough to keep the U.S. in first place, by just a hair. After his category, the competition narrowed down to the U.S. and Japan — separated by a single point — followed by Italy, Canada and Georgia.
But Team USA made up the difference and more in the rhythm dance, where ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates dominated the scoreboard with their flamenco-inspired program "Paint It Black" program.
They came in first, followed by Italy's Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and Canada's Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha. The U.S. enters the final day of competition with 44 points to Japan's 39 and Italy's 39.
"I think our team is incredibly strong, arguably the strongest it's ever been and I have the utmost faith in them and I'll be proud of them no matter what the outcome is," Chock said after.
Sunday wraps things up with the free skate — the longer, more creative program — in pairs, women's and men's, with Malinin skating again. The team event culminates in the first figure skating medal ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games, before all four skating disciplines get their own medal events over the next week and a half.
What happened on Friday
Team USA took the lead on Day One, thanks to strong performances by its only repeat Olympians.
Chock and Bates claimed first and a world-best score of 91.06 in ice dance, followed by France's Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry at a close 89.98.
Coming in third was British duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who got the crowd clapping with their Spice Girls medley (this season's musical theme for rhythm dance is the '90s, so the morning's soundtrack was dominated by girl groups and boy bands). Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier finished fourth.
In the pairs short program, Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea of the U.S. made their Olympic debut to a crowd so encouraging — many wearing USA logos and flags — that Kam later said she could barely hear their music over the applause at one point. Kam fell on a throw early in the program, but the duo recovered quickly and finished in fifth place.
"It's disappointing whenever you make a mistake, but I think we did an amazing job of picking ourselves back into the program and really finishing with some really strong elements as well," said 34-year-old O'Shea, who came out of retirement to pair up with Kam in 2022. "So the next thing is just put it behind us, keep cheering on our team … and get ready for our long program."
Japan's Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, two-time Olympians and two-time world champions, placed first in pairs by a wide margin. Luka Berulava and Anastasiia Metelkina of Georgia — a growing skating powerhouse thanks to its many Russian-born recruits — placed second, followed by Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, who had a heroes' welcome on their home turf.
"We knew there would be such a [big] audience, but you don't understand it until you go through it," Conti said.
Italy also placed third in the women's short program, after reigning European bronze medalist Lara Naki Gutmann earned her season's best score. Alysa Liu, turning heads with her signature striped hair and palpable joy, finished in first place — later bumped down to second — to put the U.S. back on top.
"We're not there very long, so I try to savor every moment," said Liu, who competed in the 2022 Olympics but was not part of the team event.
Kaori Sakamoto — who won bronze in 2022 in addition to helping Japan medal in the team event — skated last, to an emotional rendition of "Time to Say Goodbye" in honor of her upcoming retirement. She earned her own season-best score to knock Liu out of the top individual spot, but didn't quite close the gap between the two countries on the scoreboard.
Who's competing next
Part of the suspense of the team competition is finding out who each country will choose to compete in each category, which is usually announced about 24 hours in advance.
It's not as simple as just picking the top scorer in each discipline. It requires some strategizing, since anyone who competes in the team event will still have to take the ice two more times in their own category over the next two weeks.
"It's all going to come down to the decisions that the athletes and the people in charge make," U.S. skater Amber Glenn said earlier this week. "We are going to prioritize both physical and mental health."
So countries have to decide whether their strongest skater should compete in both programs of the team event, or skip one of them to get some rest in between. Each country can swap up to two (out of four) entries midway through the competition.
The U.S. is making only one swap: Glenn will skate the women's free skate on Sunday instead of Liu.
The U.S. has an advantage, in part because of the sheer size of its team: 16 people, having secured maximum quota spots in men's, women's and ice dance. The next biggest teams, Japan and Canada, have 12 people each.
And several U.S. athletes have downplayed the stress of participating in the team event, instead embracing it as more time on Olympic ice. Pairs skater O'Shea is one of them.
"You might think that there's extra pressure, but at the end of the day, it's another performance and you feel the honor to be on the team," he said.
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