2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics - Figure Skating Qualification

[Karen-W]

From Camille Kovalev's Instagram - confirmation of what we've known would happen since early September.

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Awesome! And that opens up 2 more additional athlete quota spots for the team event which will be filled by Poland's ice dancers.

 

[Karen-W]

Poland has confirmed they received the 2 additional athlete quota spots freed up by France and will be sending Sofiia Dovhal & Wiktor Kulesza for the team event!

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[barbk]

Awesome! And that opens up 2 more additional athlete quota spots for the team event which will be filled by Poland's ice dancers.

I'm confused (nothing new). Why does France sending them to pairs open up 2 slots for Poland?

 

[Sylvia]

Poland has confirmed they received the 2 additional athlete quota spots freed up by France and will be sending Sofiia Dovhal & Wiktor Kulesza for the team event!

Link to their post within the past hour: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT-q6pFFwKJ/

Historic moment - Poland will display its full team during the XXXV Winter Olympics
...
Katię Kurakową [Katia Kurakova]
Wowę Samojłowa [Vladimir Samoilov]
Julia Szczecinina and Michał Woźniaka [Ioulia Chtchetinina & Michal Wozniak]
Sofiję Dowhal i Wiktora Kuleszę [Sofiia Dovhal (born in UKR) & Wiktor Kulesza]

 

[Karen-W]

I'm confused (nothing new). Why does France sending them to pairs open up 2 slots for Poland?

Because France was using 2 of the additional athlete quota spots for the team event until Uzbekistan officially relinquished the spot that Geynish/Chigirev earned in pairs at Worlds last year. Once Uzbekistan released their spot, it went to France who was 1st alternate for the pairs spot. And once France had the pairs spot, they no longer needed the 2 additional athlete quota spots for the team event. Korea doesn't have a pairs team, so they are unable to use the newly released additional athlete quota spots, but Poland does have a dance team, so they are now using those spots in order to field a complete team for the team event.

 

[her grace]

I'm confused (nothing new). Why does France sending them to pairs open up 2 slots for Poland?

France was using 2 additional athlete quota spots solely for the team event. Since the Kovalevs have bumped up to real competitors in the pairs event (and they will also still do the team event), there are now 2 additional quota spots available solely for the team event. Poland was next in line to receive those.

 

[Andrea82]

Official entries (and substitutes for those who named them)

Olympic Winter Games Figure Skating

Find all the information about Figure Skating in the upcoming Olympic Winter Games to be held in Milano Cortina, Italy.

isu-skating.com

 

[Sylvia]

Figure Skating: Who's qualified? (30 Jan 2026): https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/news/figure-skating-whos-qualified/

Making history in Milan
Daria Danilova & Michel Tsiba are the first Pair Skaters to represent the Netherlands on Olympic ice, while Milla Ruud Reitan & Nikolaj Majorov will become the first couple to compete for Sweden in the Ice Dance at the Games. Majorov competed in singles in Beijing in 2022 and is now the first skater to compete in Singles and Ice Dance at the Olympic Winter Games.
Meda Variakojyte is the first Lithuanian Single Skater in the Olympic Figure Skating event, with Lithuania previously only having representation in the Ice Dance. Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko are the first Hungarian Pair Skaters to compete at the Olympic Winter Games in 70 years, while Yu-Hsiang Li is the first skater from Chinese Taipei to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games since 1998.

Countries at Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026

Country / Number of Participants
USA 16
Canada 12
Japan 12
France 9
Italy 9
Great Britain 8
P.R. China 6
Georgia 6
Germany 6
Republic of Korea 6
Poland 6
Spain 5
Australia 4
Czechia 4
AIN 3
Finland 3
Lithuania 3
Switzerland 3
Sweden 3
Armenia 2
Belgium 2
Estonia 2
Hungary 2
Kazakhstan 2
Latvia 2
Netherlands 2
Austria 1
Azerbaijan 1
Bulgaria 1
Israel 1
Mexico 1
Romania 1
Slovakia 1
Chinese Taipei 1
Ukraine 1

Total participants 147

 

[MsZem]

Majorov competed in singles in Beijing in 2022 and is now the first skater to compete in Singles and Ice Dance at the Olympic Winter Games.

It should have been Takahashi!!!

But good luck to Majorov and to all the skaters who'll be "firsts" in Milano-Cortina

 

[Karen-W]

Two more figure skaters will be flag bearers!

Luka Berulava & Diana Davis have been selected as the opening ceremony flag bearers for Georgia.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[barbk]

Two more figure skaters will be flag bearers!

Isn't Davis going to do the Team event? How's that going to work?

 

[kwanfan1818]

All of the Georgian skaters have to do both segments of the Team Event. There is only one GEO entry per discipline.

 

[Vagabond]

Isn't Davis going to do the Team event? How's that going to work?

By having them at different times. The skating ends several hours before the ceremony.

 

[barbk]

By having them at different times. The skating ends several hours before the ceremony.

Yes, but...in past Olypics, the teams had to line up long before the ceremony began. Like, hours before.

 

[Karen-W]

Yes, but...in past Olypics, the teams had to line up long before the ceremony began. Like, hours before.

The TE Day 1 is scheduled to end approximately 4.5 hours before the Opening Ceremony starts.

 

[Andrea82]

All the judges nominated by country


Australia (drawn for Pairs and Ice Dance panels)
Leah Bates * Olympic debut
Patricia Moritz (Ice Dance) * Olympic debut

Austria (drawn for Women panel)
Adrienn Schadenbauer * Olympic debut

Azerbajian (drawn for Men panel)
Yury Klushnikov * already judged in Olympics 2006 (for Ukraine) and 2022

Bulgaria (Women)
Vassela Popova * Olympic debut

Canada (Men, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Leanna Caron * already judged in Olympics 2018
Karen Howard * * already judged in Olympics 2014
Leslie Keen (Ice Dance) * Olympic debut

China (Men, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Weiguang Chen * judged at Olympics 2018 and got suspended for her score and banned from judging in 2022 OG
Feng Huang (Ice Dance) *judged at Olympics 2018 and got suspended and then he was the TC in Beijing 2022
Hailan Jiang * already judged in Olympics 2018

Czechia (Ice Dance)
Richard Kosina * already judged in Olympics 2018

Spain (Men, Ice Dance)
Daniel Delfa * already judged in Olympics 2014 and 2018
Marta Olozagarre (Ice Dance) * already judged in Olympics 2018 and 2022

Finland (Ice Dance)
Virpi Kunnas-Helminen * Olympic debut

France (Men, Women, Ice Dance)
Helene Cucuphat * already judged in Olympics 2010 and 2014
Jezabel Dabouis (Ice Dance) * Olympic debut
Richard Leroy * already judged in Olympics 2 * already judged in Olympics 2014, 2018 and 2022

Georgia (Men, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Salome Chigogidze * Olympic debut (because in 2021 she was suspended before the Games)
Nadezhda Fiodorova * switched from Belarus this summer * Olympic debut
Elena Khmyzenko * switched from Russia this summer * Olympic debut

Great Britain (Women, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Ann Findley * Olympic debut
Richard Grainge * Olympic debut
Nicholas Russell (Ice Dance) * already judged in Olympics 2022

Germany (Pairs, Ice Dance)
Christian Baumann (Ice Dance) * Olympic debut
Kerstin Kimmunus * already judged in Olympics 2018

Hungary (Pairs)
Attila Soos * Olympic debut

Israel (Women)
Anna Kantor * already judged in Olympics 2018 and 022

Italy (Men, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Isabella Micheli (Ice Dance) * already judged in Olympics 2010. She participated as athlete in 1984 Olympics
Gloria Morandi * already judged in Olympics 2006
Tiziana Morandi * Olympic debut

Japan (Women, Pairs)
Ritsuko Horiuchi * Olympic debut
Ayumi Ono * already judged in Olympics 2018

Kazakhstan(Men, Women)
Nadezhda Paretskaia * Olympic debut

Lithuania (Women)
Laimute Krauziene * already judged in Olympics 2010, 2014 and 2022 (in Ice Dance)

Netherlands (Pairs)
Nicole Van Gerwen-Maas * Olympic debut

Poland (Women, Pairs)
Aniela Hebel-Skmak * already judged in Olympics 2010,
Magdalena Rusiecka * Olympic debut

Romania (Women)
Marina Beschea * Olympic debut

Latvia (Men)
Abele Agita * already judged in Olympics 2018

South Korea (Women, Men, Ice Dance)
Young Kyung Han * Olympic debut
Jung Sue Lee * already judged in Olympics 2022
Chihee Rhee (Ice Dance) * already judged in Olympics 2010 and served as referee in 2018

Switzerland (Men, Women)
Christine Blanc * Olympic debut
Alice Walder * Olympic debut

Sweden (Men)
Laila Davidson* Olympic debut

USA (Men, Women, Pairs, Ice Dance)
Janis Engel (Ice Dance) * Olympic debut
Peggy Graham * already judged in Olympics 2022
Kristina Lundgren * already judged in Olympics 2022
Kevin Rosenstein * Olympic debut

Uzabekhstan (Pairs)
Saodat Numanova * already judged in Olympics 2018

Source: https://wmr-static-assets.scd.dgpla...K-------------------------------__C35_1.0.pdf

 

[Andrea82]

@tony has revealed on The Skating Session's IG account the tech panels for the Olympics. As he notes on the posts, these have not been officially published or announced by the ISU, but as far as he is aware, the information is correct as of today. Tech panels call both the individual events and the team event for the disciplines.

Men - Leena Laskonen FIN, Clarence Ong AUS, Raoul LeBlanc CAN (called the 2025 Skate Canada Men & Women's competitions)
Women - Jeroen Prins NED, Claudia Unger GER, Zsofia Tokaji-Kulcsar HUN (called the 2025 Finlandia Trophy Men & Women's competitions)
Pairs - Susan Lynch AUS, Veronique Fleury FRA, Whitney Gaynor USA (called the 2025 Worlds Pairs competition)
Ice Dance - Marcin Kozubek POL, Ayako Higashino JPN, Tae-hwa Yang KOR (rumored to be the 2025 GPF Ice Dance panel)

Referee are

TAUCHMANOVA Vera (Czechia)
LOCATELLI Raffaella (Italy)
SANCHO Saioa (Spain)
PIPOH Rolf (Germany)

 

[Andrea82]

And last but not least...the mugshots

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/hubs/individuals/athletes?showAll=true&discipline=FSK&perPage=50

 

[Karen-W]

Akopova & Rakhmanin will also be flag bearers for the Opening Ceremony!

There really aren't a lot of winter sports athletes in the Caucus Mountain nations, so two more get to be flag bearers for the Opening Ceremonies - Karina Akopova & Nikita Rakhmanin for Armenia!

https://twitter.com/x/status/2017654714406440975

 

[Karen-W]

Alexandra Feigin has been selected as a flag bearer for Bulgaria!

Alexandra Feigin on Instagram: "Dreams don’t stop at one Olympics.🇧🇬✨ За втори път ще имам честта да участвам на Зимни олимпийски игри-Милано, Кортина 2026 и да представям България. А този път – с още по-голяма отговорност и гордост, като знаменосец.

1,219 likes, 41 comments - alexandra_feigin on February 2, 2026: "Dreams don’t stop at one Olympics.🇧🇬✨ За втори път ще имам честта да участвам на Зимни олимпийски игри-Милано, Кортина 2026 и да представям България. А този път – с още по-голяма отговорност и гордост, като знаменосец. Мечта...

www.instagram.com

 

[Karen-W]

And Reed/Ambrulevicius will be the flag bearers for Lithuania!

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