French team defying timelines for ice dance success

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French team defying timelines for ice dance success

It’s not supposed to happen this way in ice dance, having two skaters who teamed up less than a year ago leading the Olympics after the rhythm dance.

After all, the last three Olympic champions all had skated together seemingly forever, beginning when they were children: 18 years for 2022 gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France; 21 years for 2018 winners Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada; 17 years for 2014 winners Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States.

"Longevity is incredibly important because of how complex both the training relationship and competitive relationship is, especially in ice dance, since the elements are so nuanced, and there’s so much relying on the performance and emotional chemistry," Ben Agosto, 2006 Olympic silver medalist with Tanith (Belbin) White, told me when Papadakis and Cizeron won.

And yet here we are, with Cizeron and his new partner, freshly minted French citizen Laurence Fournier Beaudry, beating three-time reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States by two whiskers in Monday’s opening phase of the 2026 ice dance event. It concludes with the free dance Wednesday.

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Team USA's path to Olympic figure skating team gold was full of surprises

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Team USA's path to Olympic figure skating team gold was full of surprises

This time, the Olympic figure skating team event is over when it was over.

Team USA claimed a second straight gold, and the medals were hung around the necks of the seven U.S. skaters who took part in the team event barely 30 minutes after the competition ended at the Milan Ice Skating Arena.

And it wasn’t over until it was over, coming down to a thrilling head-to-head contest between the final two men’s singles skaters — Ilia Malinin of the U.S. and Shun Sato of Japan.

“I was more nervous watching Ilia than I was skating myself,” said U.S. captain and pairs skater Danny O'Shea.

Malinin had lost the short program decisively to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who was replaced for the free skate by Sato, recently stronger in the longer phase of events than Kagiyama. That left some doubt about how the Quadg0d would handle the free.

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Quad God Ilia Malinin just might be human after all

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Quad God Ilia Malinin just might be human after all

Yes, there has been a lot of attention on figure skater Ilia Malinin, to the point where someone just dropping in on the sport would have been utterly shocked to see what happened when Malinin made his Olympic debut in the short program of the team event.

Isn’t this guy supposed to be the quadg0d? An overwhelming favorite for the men’s singles gold medal? Winner of the last two world titles?

Then how did he finish second Saturday at the Milano Ice Center Arena to Yuma Kagiyama of Japan…and by 10 points??

On ice, of course, even the divine can slip into fallibility, as Malinin did, losing points on an under-rotated quad Lutz jump and a spin that did not get the maximum base value.

And this wasn’t the first time Kagiyama had beaten Malinin in a short program. In fact, it happened in their last meeting, at the Grand Prix Final in December.

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Alysa Liu competes at her second Olympic Games with joy

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Alysa Liu competes at her second Olympic Games with joy

Just before starting her short program in the 2026 Olympic figure skating team event, the new Alysa Liu cruised along the rink boards, smiling broadly, slapping hands with her coaches, Massimo Scali and Phillip DiGuglielmo, as she rocketed past them. 

In the midst of her program, she responded to a front-leaning landing on her double Axel jump with a bemusedly funky facial expression, a reaction Liu could cheerily describe as “like, oopsie” since the imbalance didn’t result in a faceplant.

As she skated off the ice toward the Team USA Box at the Milano Ice Skating Arena after a performance that was fallible but never fragile, Liu pumped both fists in unison, yelled, “Yeah!,” then turned around to tumble into a group hug when her scores were announced.

“I want people to see everything about me,” Liu said, then added an hour later, “I love, I guess, being noticed.”

How different that is than four years ago, when the old Alysa Liu might have preferred to skate with the lights off at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when the sport brought darkness rather than joy to her life, gave her pain rather than pleasure.

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Figure skating officials weigh major changes in rules, schedule

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Figure skating officials weigh major changes in rules, schedule

nternational figure skating federation officials are weighing changes in competition rules that would alter the sport radically, including a potentially dramatic reduction in jumps in singles events.

And the federation’s governing board, the International Skating Union (ISU) council, has already supported significant changes to the figure skating season schedule and Grand Prix format to take effect in the 2027-28 season.

All this is still in discussion stages but moving forward. Under the new ISU Constitution, the 14-member council (rather than the biennial ISU Congress) has the “ultimate authority to adopt, amend or repeal” competition and event regulations and sports rules.

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