Team USA defended its Olympic figure skating team event gold medal on Sunday after Ilia “Quad God” Malinin ushered the team to victory at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, attempting a total of five quad jumps.
The U.S. and Japan were tied at 59 points before the men’s free skate, the final event of the team competition. It came down to Malinin’s performance to decide the podium placement, and the 21-year-old two-time World champion didn’t disappoint. He earned a score of 200.03, topping Japan’s Shun Sato (194.86) who substituted for Yuma Kagiyama who outperformed Malinin on Saturday in the short program.
Host country Italy took home the bronze medal.
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The Olympic figure skating team event on Sunday consisted of four separate events: free ice dance, free pair skating, women’s single free skate and men’s single free skate.
Amber Glenn debuts on Olympic ice
North Texas native Amber Glenn placed third in the women’s free skate event, which took place before the men’s on Sunday.
When the 26-year-old took the ice, the first-time Olympian became the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to compete in an Olympics in 98 years, according to U.S. Figure Skating. She was also the first out LGBTQ woman to skate at an Olympic Games.
Following her free skate, in which she shakily landed her hallmark triple axel, Glenn told NBC that she felt “disappointed” but she was “very proud of the fight.”
“I just felt really not my best today and I’m just really disappointed in that,” she said. Her performance earned the team eight points.
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Pair skaters Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea take 4th
Team USA pair skating duo Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea place fourth on Sunday in the second team event, after Japan, Georgia and Italy.
Their performance earned the U.S. seven points.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates dominate in ice dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates followed their rhythm dance triumph on Saturday with a winning free dance on Sunday.
The duo dominated the ice dance programs in what is their fourth consecutive Winter Olympic Games together.
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“We definitely skated great and we’re very happy, as you saw when we finished. I think we both felt the excitement of just getting these Olympics underway,” said Bates, who along with Chock are the only holdovers from the gold medalists at the Beijing Games.
The three-time world champions, Chock and Bates are the favorites to win individual Olympic gold later in the Winter Games.
Team USA won its first-ever gold medal in the Olympic figure skating team event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The team received the gold two years after the Games because Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who initially helped her teammates win gold, received a four-year ban for taking a banned substance.
