2026 Olympics Team Event - Strategy, Predictions & Discussion

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

I still say women are getting split. And I put it in my pipe and smoke it if I’m wrong.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

Ilia has stated that he wants to do just the SP for the team event. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be persuaded to also do the LP, but it’s not his preference.

 

[vireo]

Don't skaters who do the team event end up getting more practice time? I've heard this mentioned as an advantage for those who skate in the team event.

I wonder if more time on Olympic ice might be a factor in the choice to do one or both segments of the team competition.

 

[skatingguy]

Don't skaters who do the team event end up getting more practice time? I've heard this mentioned as an advantage for those who skate in the team event.

Yes, particularly an advantage for the pairs, and women as those events, and the official practices are later in the games.

 

[Allskate]

Ilia just showed that he is willing to do a watered-down long. Any chance at all that he could be talked/bribed into doing something like that in the team event?

 

[Karen-W]

Ilia just showed that he is willing to do a watered-down long. Any chance at all that he could be talked/bribed into doing something like that in the team event?

One can only hope & pray.

 

[Dobre]

My two cents:

I don't care what the order of skate is, I think USA should put up Chock & Bates and Malinin twice. You want the gold medal or don't you? Split the ladies. That's fine. Multiple women have competed at multiple worlds and earned significant international medals.

This team has great competitors and experience at the top. That said, we won't have Alexa with all her experience to get the job done in the pairs short. Zingas, Kolesnik, Torgashev--no Olympic experience, no decent Worlds experience/results. By all means send them to the Olympics; but I feel it's time for C/B and Malinin to step up here.

Russia, Canada, Italy--they've all put up one athlete in more than two disciplines in order to bring in what it takes for the team.

When the 96 women's gymnastics team won, there were quotes pointing out that it is a very different thing to compete for gold than to compete for a medal. I believe that.

 

[Karen-W]

My two cents:

I don't care what the order of skate is, I think USA should put up Chock & Bates and Malinin twice. You want the gold medal or don't you? Split the ladies. That's fine. Multiple women have competed at multiple worlds and earned significant international medals.

This team has great competitors and experience at the top. That said, we won't have Alexa with all her experience to get the job done in the pairs short. Zingas, Kolesnik, Torgashev--no Olympic experience, no decent Worlds experience/results. By all means send them to the Olympics; but I feel it's time for C/B and Malinin to step up here.

Russia, Canada, Italy--they've all put up one athlete in more than two disciplines in order to bring in what it takes for the team.

When the 96 women's gymnastics team won, there were quotes pointing out that it is a very different thing to compete for gold than to compete for a medal. I believe that.

I agree with this for the most part with one minor caveat... Wait to make a decision on having ChoBat do both segments until after we know whether Canada or France makes the FS/FD phase. If it's France, then swap in CarPon because they are a good bet to beat LopBri in the FD (they beat them with this Perfume FD already at 2024 Worlds) and finish no lower than 2nd - they can afford to give away 1 point if they're using Ilia in both segments. If it's Canada, then use ChoBat because they're not losing either phase of the TE.

 

[BittyBug]

You don't think it would be ZinKol who would sub? Seems like they've moved ahead of CarPom.

 

[Allskate]

I agree with this for the most part with one minor caveat... Wait to make a decision on having ChoBat do both segments until after we know whether Canada or France makes the FS/FD phase. If it's France, then swap in CarPon because they are a good bet to beat LopBri in the FD (they beat them with this Perfume FD already at 2024 Worlds) and finish no lower than 2nd - they can afford to give away 1 point if they're using Ilia in both segments. If it's Canada, then use ChoBat because they're not losing either phase of the TE.

Under the rules, can they wait to decide? For some reason, I thought they had to choose all the team members before the TE starts.

 

[Karen-W]

You don't think it would be ZinKol who would sub? Seems like they've moved ahead of CarPom.

Depends on what the USFS uses to determine who gets the assignment. It's definitely NOT Nationals results otherwise Bell would have had the TE assignment instead of K-Chen in 2022, and the Shibs wouldn't have gotten the job in 2018 either since HubDon won Nats that year.

Scuttlebutt in 2022 was that the USFS uses WS to make the decision, and if that's the case then it would go to CarPon.

Under the rules, can they wait to decide? For some reason, I thought they had to choose all the team members before the TE starts.

So, the Feds will name ALL of their Olympic team members as POSSIBLE TE participants ahead of the Olympics, but they only have to name the SP/RD participants by 10am the day before they compete. For the FD, they will have to name their participants 10 minutes after the conclusion of the TE Women's SP on Feb 7th as that team will then compete the same day - I'm not sure how long of a break there is between the TE Women's SP and the TE FD, but it's a pretty quick turnaround, so both teams would have to be prepared for the possibility of skating if that's the strategy the USFS decides to employ. After the TE FD, there is another Team Leaders Meeting and the rest of the FS participants must be named to compete the next day.

 

[MacMadame]

.

 

[Karen-W]

No, you give the names for the RD/SP by some deadline before they start and then the names for the FD/FS by another deadline that is after the RD/SP and before the FD/FS.

It's 10am the day before Day 1 of the TE for the Men, Pairs & Dance (Feb 5th); it's 10am on Day 1 of the TE for the Women (Feb 6th)

See pg 10 of the Qualification Doc - https://isu-d8g8b4b7ece7aphs.a03.az...onSystemforFigureSkatingV-1742972767-5891.pdf

This is copied from Beijing, I think, because it talks about the Men's SP happening on Day 2 of the TE, which it's not this year - the Women's SP starts off Day 2, followed by the FD.

 

[MacMadame]

It's 10am the day before Day 1 of the TE for the Men, Pairs & Dance (Feb 5th); it's 10am on Day 1 of the TE for the Women (Feb 6th)

See pg 10 of the Qualification Doc - https://isu-d8g8b4b7ece7aphs.a03.az...onSystemforFigureSkatingV-1742972767-5891.pdf

This is copied from Beijing, I think, because it talks about the Men's SP happening on Day 2 of the TE, which it's not this year - the Women's SP starts off Day 2, followed by the FD.

I knew you'd know the details.

 

[Allskate]

So, the Feds will name ALL of their Olympic team members as POSSIBLE TE participants ahead of the Olympics, but they only have to name the SP/RD participants by 10am the day before they compete. For the FD, they will have to name their participants 10 minutes after the conclusion of the TE Women's SP on Feb 7th as that team will then compete the same day - I'm not sure how long of a break there is between the TE Women's SP and the TE FD, but it's a pretty quick turnaround, so both teams would have to be prepared for the possibility of skating if that's the strategy the USFS decides to employ. After the TE FD, there is another Team Leaders Meeting and the rest of the FS participants must be named to compete the next day.

I think you may have reversed the men and the women. It's the women doing the SP on the 6th and the men on the 7th:

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/schedule/fsk

And, according to the document you linked, it looks like they have to name the FD competitors 10 minutes after the end of the men's SP on the 7th. They then have to name the women's, pairs, and men's FS participants by 11 p.m. that same day.

Either way, given the short turnaround before the FD, it would be even better if Ilia would agree to do both segments. Ice dance and women could plan on splitting and pairs and men would do both segments.

 

[Karen-W]

I think you may have reversed the men and the women. It's the women doing the SP on the 6th and the men on the 7th:

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/schedule/fsk

And, according to the document you linked, it looks like they have to name the FD competitors 10 minutes after the end of the men's SP on the 7th. They then have to name the women's, pairs, and men's FS participants by 11 p.m. that same day.

Either way, given the short turnaround before the FD, it would be even better if Ilia would agree to do both segments. Ice dance and women could plan on splitting and pairs and men would do both segments.

Oy. That's changed since I put the dates of the SP in my spreadsheet last winter, lol.

But, yeah, it's an incredibly short turnaround.

 

[Vagabond]

All of the above assumes a lot of things, including that he fully rotates and lands his triple axels. If he doesn't, he might not even finish in the top three at Nationals, at which point FSU will explode.

 

[her grace]

Canada’s going to have to put some real thought into who gets to skate pairs in the team event. Interested in seeing who they choose.

 

[Sasha'sSpins]

Ilia has stated that he wants to do just the SP for the team event. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be persuaded to also do the LP, but it’s not his preference.

Maybe he could be persuaded to do a watered down FS, like he just did for Nationals.

 

[Spiralgraph]

There has to be various plans for the USA for the tean event. In addition to the poor performance by Jason (will FSU explode?) there's one variable yet to consider. The Olympics are notorious for athletes getting sick and spreading their illlnesses and germs to each other. Remember Vincent Zhou last time? Even if someone prefers not to do both segments, it'd be better if most of them stated they would skate in both portions if needed. They're athletes if they can't extend themselves for a good chance at a team medal, why are they competing?