Winter Olympics 2026: USA take gold in figure skating team event – as it happened
You can read a full report from Sunday’s action here:Final team standings69 USA 68 Japan 60 Italy 56 Georgia 54 CanadaMen’s standings200,03 Malinin (USA) 194,86 Sato (JPN) 179,62 Rizzo (ITA) 171,93 Gogolev (CAN) 154.
79 Egadze (GEO)One thing that can’t be overlooked – the ice dance duo of Chock and Bates swept their assignments.That was the equivalent of a 14-point favorite winning when the opponent misses a 64-yard field goal.So close.Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea are the unlikely heroes, picking up an unexpected seven instead of six in the pairs skate.Amber Glenn fumbled a bit but held on for a gritty third-place finish.
And Ilia Malinin landed a whole bunch of quads, even if one was a bit shaky.Thanks for following along, wherever you are.Enjoy the rest of the Games after you catch your breath.And watch the USA in the mixed doubles curling semifinals.Korey and Cory seem to have overcome their mid-competition downturn.
Sato’s career best is 194.02.This will probably be around … 198?Nope … it’s a career best, but not by much – 194.86.The Japanese team is thrilled, but they’re taking silver.
Weir and Lipinski think Malinin will just barely hang on.But they’re stunned that it’s so close.Reviews have taken Sato down to 106.53.Maybe enough breathing room?They keep upgrading Sato’s marks!As he finishes, it’s 108.
20.Barely two points behind Malinin.Oh my.And it was a nice program to watch.Weir frets that the judges are being “very generous.
” And again on a quad toeloop, and a triple axel/double axel.The good news for the USA is that he has no more quads or combos planned.Sato rises to the occasion early.Huge quad lutz.Then a triple axel/euler/triple salchow.
Then a quad toeloop/triple toeloop.This could get interesting.Hold the presses … we have news on the figure skating musical front!Sato is ready to roll …Malinin clowns for the camera as he skates back, playing peek-a-boo and laughing.He doesn’t seem too bothered.Tech score is down to 110.
32.Score is: 200.03.Sato’s career best is 194.02.
Quad lutz – has to put his hands down to land!Quad toeloop/Euler/Triple flip – ADDED to what was plannedQuad salchow/Triple axel – nailed itBackflip – yeah, why not,Spins are good, too,And it was entertaining,Technical score stands at 111,59 for now.
You’d have to think that’ll be enough, even if it’s not his best.Quad flip – landed, far ahead of the base value (15.71 to 11)Quad axel – decided on the triple instead.Way ahead of base value.Quad lutz – landedQuad loop – another triple instead, but Johnny Weir isn’t alarmed, saying he doesn’t need the quad there to win this stage.
Three more jumping runs …It’s a 171,93 for Gogolev,Not sure how that happened,Here comes Ilia,World record holder with a 238.
24.Say this for figure skating fans – they appreciate good skating and good entertainment wherever they find it.They clap along with Gogolev’s music toward the end of a quite impressive program.Pending review, his technical scores are ahead of Rizzo’s.Malinin is warming up.
Millions of people in the USA start to hold their breath.Canada’s Stephen Gogolev, who’s 21 but looks younger, can’t affect the standings in any way.The bronze is settled, and silver and gold will be determined by the head-to-head Malinin-Sato matchup.But he’ll never get a better practice opportunity than this.He has to put a hand down to barely avoid a fall after a quad, but it’s a hiccup in an otherwise solid start.
Rizzo pumps up the crowd several times before doing the figure skating equivalent of the Lambeau Leap, jumping into the barrier to get hugs before departing the ice in the more conventional way.His technical scores alone are 92.52.Egadze hit 78.33.
Waiting to see it made official.Score is … 179.62.It’s not in the Malinin-osphere, nor would it trouble either of the top Japanese skaters, but it’s far and away his season’s best.And Italy have seen off the challenge from Georgia, which must look elsewhere for its first winter medal.
Rizzo only tries one quad.But he’s not trying to best Malinin’s technical score.He’s trying to beat Egadze.This is going to do it, very easily.It’s not as dazzling as some other men, but it’s clean.
And despite the music not being the most upbeat, it’s kind of inspiring to watch.He finishes by going over and putting his hands on the judges’ table.I think he actually flirted a bit.As soon as he finishes, he drops to the ice and cries tears of joy.He just delivered a bronze medal for Italy.
It’s a 154.79 for Egadze.Matteo Rizzo will take the ice now in an effort to seal the bronze medal for Italy.He’ll be skating to … oh, no … Hans Zimmer’s music from Interstellar.I had to play a video of this to music classes four times in one day, and I was depressed for a week.
Did you know Hans Zimmer was in the first video ever on MTV?Egadze opens with a quad lutz and doesn’t land cleanly.It’s knocked down to a double and marked down on top of that.He rebounds with a quad toeloop and a quad-triple combo, but his triple axel is shaky.Georgia has to finish two places ahead of Italy here to force a tie and incur the complicated tiebreaking process that I don’t have time to read, let alone explain.Looks like it won’t be an issue.
But he’s still going, and he threw in a triple flip/double axel/double axel sequence,Not too bad,Yay! We’re back,First up, the battle for bronze,Georgia leads with Nika Egadze.
Remember – Georgia have NEVER won a Winter Olympic medal in ANYTHING.We’ll have some time before the men’s free skate, so this is a great time to send in your emails if you like.I’m also duty-bound by the citizens of Vienna (Va.) to point out that Malinin is from my town.In fact, Marshall High School just got a shoutout on the broadcast.
(I’m tied to the other school in Vienna, but still …)How big was that extra point that the US pair of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea picked up? Without that, even if Ilia Malinin gets 10 points, Japan would be in position to tie by picking up nine,Women’s scores148,62 Sakamoto (JPN) 140,17 Gubanova (GEO) 138,62 Glenn (USA) 126.
94 Gutmann (ITA) 125.00 Schizas (CAN)Team standings 59 USA 59 Japan 52 Italy 50 Georgia 47 CanadaSo lest we forget the bronze medal – Canada’s out, but there’s a chance that Georgia could pick up its first medal in any Winter Olympic sport.Maybe when someone invents ice judo.Amber Glenn is being interviewed and is quite gracious, offering a matter-of-fact analysis in which she thinks she might have had too much adrenaline earlier in the day and then faded.“Can Ilia bring it home?” she’s asked
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