U.S. Takes Lead After Day Certainly one of Team Occasion at 2026 Olympic Winter Games

By: Troy Schwindt

The United States sits atop the standings within the staff occasion on the opening day of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.  

Competing of their fourth Olympics, Madison Chock and Evan Bates bought Team USA off to a flying begin with a stunning efficiency of their rhythm dance to Lenny Kravitz hits.

The three-time and reigning World ice dance champions attacked every factor of their program with finesse, exhibiting off the unison and chemistry constructed over their 15-year partnership and gaining consecutive +4 and +5 GOEs (grades of execution) on their center three parts. 

The near-flawless routine on the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan earned a season-high 91.06 factors for first place, giving Team USA an important 10 factors. 

With Alysa Liu’s second-place end within the ladies’s brief program and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea’s fifth-place effort within the pairs occasion, Team USA leads the staff occasion standings with 25 factors on the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“It’s a great start for the rest of the day. I’m happy to be able to put out this performance for them as a team,” Chock mentioned.

“As we finished, I think we both felt the excitement in getting the Olympics on the way,” Bates mentioned.

The skaters stay up for supporting their teammates who, aside from Alysa Liu, are competing at their first Olympic Games. Chock and Bates are 2022 Olympic staff occasion gold medalists.

“We’re here to support the younger athletes whenever they need it,” Chock mentioned. “They’re all incredibly professional, very gifted and have good heads on their shoulders, so they know what to do. We are confident in them and trust them, but of course, we’re here when they need help.”

Bates added it has been thrilling to be a part of the game’s resurrection relating to its reputation lately.

“I’m so happy for our sport, the federation and U.S. Figure Skating,” Bates mentioned. “You know the history of our sport for the last 30 years and one of the goals of this generation is to bring skating back to the forefront of pop culture, and I think we have the stars to do that. There’s the Blade Angels — they’re so fun and so entertaining — and the Quad God. I think we have the firepower to make skating popular again.”

In her Olympic staff occasion debut, Liu carried out her brief program to Laufey’s “Promise” and skated the way in which she has all season lengthy: relaxed, assured and with pleasure. 

After opening with a triple flip and double Axel, the reigning World champion executed essentially the most tough mixture of the occasion, a triple Lutz-triple loop, with the loop deemed on the quarter by the technical panel. Liu shone within the ultimate half of this system with easy Level 4 spins and steps and earned 74.90 factors – much less  than one level off her worldwide personal-best rating – for second place and 9 factors for Team USA.

“There’s so many parts I did love in that short program,” mentioned Liu, who’s the reigning World and Grand Prix Final champion. “I liked my spins a lot, especially the last layback. And I liked what my intention was with some of the movements.” 

“But I really loved the crowd, and I love having my teammates right there rinkside to cheer me on. To have them all be with me when I get off is — that’s how it should be.”

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea did their job for Team USA, delivering a refined efficiency to okay.d. lang’s “Hallelujah” of their Olympic debut

The reigning U.S. pairs silver medalists opened with a stable triple twist and nailed their side-by-side triple Salchows, and though Kam fell on the touchdown of a throw triple loop, they closed their program sturdy with a elegant Level 4 Axel lasso carry, the second-highest scoring factor of the occasion.

The Colorado Springs-based skaters earned 66.59 factors for fifth place, contributing six factors to the staff’s tally.

“It was crazy,” Kam mentioned of the followers’ response to their program. “You could hear it when we landed our side-by-side jumps; it was so loud I couldn’t hear anything and I couldn’t hear our music for a second, so it was like, ‘OK, lock in, we need to do the rest of this program.'”

“We had some high points within that performance and things that we are proud of, and we had the obvious fall,” O’Shea mentioned. “Ice is slippery sometimes, unfortunately. We both have to make sure that we are in that perfect zone in that given day and that given moment, so it’s disappointing whenever you make a mistake, but I think we did an amazing job of picking ourselves back up and getting back into the program and finishing with some really strong elements.”

O’Shea, the staff occasion captain, mentioned the expertise of being an Olympian has been all he thought it might be.

“It’s special to be on Team USA,” O’Shea mentioned. “To have the opportunity to do something that we’ve both trained for and fought for since we were 4 years old, to come out on the world stage and represent the country that we are from is an amazing experience.”

Ilia Malinin will make his Olympic debut on Saturday within the males’s brief program of the staff occasion. Undefeated for greater than two years, Malinin is the reigning and two-time World champion, three-time Grand Prix Final champion and four-time and reigning U.S. champion.

The United States has medaled within the staff occasion each Olympic Winter Games because the occasion started in 2014. After securing bronze in 2014 and 2018, Team USA clinched gold in 2022.

To comply with Team USA throughout the staff occasion, together with the complete schedule, bios, information and extra, go to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Competition Central.