2026 Olympics Team Event - Strategy, Predictions & Discussion

[Vagabond]

Russia certainly went all in in winning the TE gold 4 years ago

They did indeed, and look how that worked out for them.

 

[kwanfan1818]

And they'd still be gold medalists if they had split the women between Scherbakova and Trusova, and left the individual gold to Valieva, not knowing the test results then. There would have been enough time after the the test results came out for her to be "injured" before the individual event and the whole drug test results remaining private. Then people would have lamented how her chance for gold was taken away from her because she wasn't in the TE, until a formal suspension made it all public.

 

[tangerine dream]

And they'd still be gold medalists if they had split the women between Scherbakova and Trusova, and left the individual gold to Valieva, not knowing the test results then. There would have been enough time after the the test results came out for her to be "injured" before the individual event and the whole drug test results remaining private. Then people would have lamented how her chance for gold was taken away from her because she wasn't in the TE, until a formal suspension made it all public.

They didn't even need to take Valieva out to get the gold, just splitting it would have been enough, assuming Scherbakova/Trusova won their segment (and we all know they would have).

 

[kwanfan1818]

They didn't even need to take Valieva out to get the gold, just splitting it would have been enough, assuming Scherbakova/Trusova won their segment (and we all know they would have).

That's true in retrospect, because we've seen how they "resolved" it -- not that there was a chance they'd disqualify the whole team -- but it would have meant a post medal ceremony explosion, even bigger than the disaster that happened. Splitting between Scherbakova and Trusova would have been a legit win with no adjustments, and the ensuing skandal when a ban was announced later would have been avoided during the Olympics.

 

[my little pony]

has Ilia said anything about how he feels about the team event? as an Olde, I really don't hold it in any regard because I didnt grow up watching it and I never saw Michelle Kwan do it. but the whippersnappers seem to feel differently. If Ilia wants to be a 2x OGM in one swoop, he may look over at our weak link pairs and decide he can do both.

 

[Karen-W]

has Ilia said anything about how he feels about the team event? as an Olde, I really don't hold it in any regard because I didnt grow up watching it and I never saw Michelle Kwan do it. but the whippersnappers seem to feel differently. If Ilia wants to be a 2x OGM in one swoop, he may look over at our weak link pairs and decide he can do both.

The best information we have is Ari Z telling the press during the fall that Ilia would only do the TE SP. That's not Ilia himself and who knows if that has changed since then.

 

[PRlady]

I'm now getting into conspiracy mode. Did they order things the way they did to make the Team Gold less likely for the US -- our two strongest disciplines are last in the TE and first in the individual events? Seems sus.

I thought I was the only paranoid but I’ve been wondering that for a while! And I would have been so happy with the usual Pairs/Men/Dance/Women because I could have come the second week and seen my two favorite disciplines.

In China the hosts wanted Pairs last as their strongest discipline. Italy only has a chance at an individual medal in Dance and Pairs so I originally assumed one of those would come last. As it is, the top men and dancers are not getting the best start for their individual competitions.

 

[Karen-W]

FINALLY! Uzbekistan has finally released their pairs spot and France has been awarded the spot as expected for 4+ months now. Poland has, in turn, confirmed they are sending Dovhal/Kulesza for the team event.

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

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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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[Karen-W]

So, we are just 9 days away from the Team Event Day 1 Starting Orders Draw. Official practices for the Team Event competitors begin this Saturday, Jan 31st.

https://results.isu.org/schedules/OWG2026_ColouredTimeSchedule.pdf

These first three days of practice should give is some insight into who has been selected for the Team Event from the countries with multiple entries in some/all disciplines, so keep your eyes peeled on social media to see who is traveling to Italy this week rather than on the weekend or early next week.

 

[CassAgain]

These first three days of practice should give is some insight into who has been selected for the Team Event from the countries with multiple entries in some/all disciplines, so keep your eyes peeled on social media to see who is traveling to Italy this week rather than on the weekend or early next week.

Interesting. According to their TikTok, Emi Zing and Vadym Koles start their journey this Thursday, the day after tomorrow.

 

[Karen-W]

Interesting. According to their TikTok, Emi Zing and Vadym Koles start their journey this Thursday, the day after tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much insight we'll get based on travel plans for the Team USA skaters - IIRC, Emily Chan said something along the lines of "one week until we leave!" last week on her IG. Team USA processing starts Jan 29th, so Thursday makes sense for a lot of the team to travel/start arriving in Milan. The first three days of practices may give us the biggest insight since those are Team Event only practices.

 

[Debbie S]

Didn't Justin Dillon say that USFS was renting ice in Bergamo? The skaters will probably practice there at least until the middle of next week.

 

[Karen-W]

Didn't Justin Dillon say that USFS was renting ice in Bergamo? The skaters will probably practice there at least until the middle of next week.

Yes, he did.

I'm fuzzy about the practice restrictions during the Olympics. I know for ISU Championships, once you set foot on official practice ice, you can't practice elsewhere, but is that the case for the Olympics? Seems like it would be awfully unfair to the pairs & women who are doing the Team Event to have their practice time limited during the first week of the Olympics.

 

[barbk]

Yes, he did.

I'm fuzzy about the practice restrictions during the Olympics. I know for ISU Championships, once you set foot on official practice ice, you can't practice elsewhere, but is that the case for the Olympics? Seems like it would be awfully unfair to the pairs & women who are doing the Team Event to have their practice time limited during the first week of the Olympics.

In past years, skater were free to practice elsewhere during the Olympics...Tara did, Sarah Hughes did, and I'm pretty sure there were a lot of others.

 

[anova914]

In past years, skater were free to practice elsewhere during the Olympics...Tara did, Sarah Hughes did, and I'm pretty sure there were a lot of others.

Weren't Hubbell & Donohue practicing elsewhere during the team event? They sure weren't watching & cheering on their teammates (like C/B were).

 

[Karen-W]

Weren't Hubbell & Donohue practicing elsewhere during the team event? They sure weren't watching & cheering on their teammates (like C/B were).

2018? I have no recollection of where they were.

Beijing was, obviously, a very different environment for all of the athletes due to the strict Covid bubble the CCP implemented for the Olympics.

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

Ilia is the Simone Biles of men’s figure skating, Ilia is a machine!

Alysa tires and Amber worries. Ilia does neither. He might reduce his content a little in the TE - he CAN. I haven`t seen Ilia nervous in the last two years; he`s so far ahead it doesn`t stress him. He`s going to eat up the attention and chances to show off. To me no risk in either the TE or singles of him doing all.

 

[fsfan2480]

Selfishly, I'd love Malinin and Chock/Bates to do both in the TE so as to assure Gold, because when it comes to the individual competition, you just never know what could happen. A seemingly assured individual Gold could somehow become Silver or even off the podium. And at least some of the athletes can walk away with TE Gold and say that they are "Olympic Champions".

 

[Skaterbob]

Ilia is the Simone Biles of men’s figure skating, if she can do two competitions days in a row for qualifications for four apparatuses, and then go right back the next day to throw down all four apparatuses for the team event, and then go for the individual all-around, and then compete for the floor title, then the vault title, then the beam title than the uneven bar title….. now come on now. Ilia is a machine!

The reference to Simone Biles is horrible. Did you block out what happened in 2021? Kind of that same thing you are trying to say about Ilia with all the pressure on him to carry the team.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Excluding the racism she encountered non-stop that he will never be exposed to, if only anyone cared enough about Figure Skating for there to be the same pressure and exposure in the Figure Skating Team Event. It's a blip in the scheme of things.

 

[Hindernisse]

In past years, skater were free to practice elsewhere during the Olympics...Tara did, Sarah Hughes did, and I'm pretty sure there were a lot of others.

Some teams training with Savin and Klimov plan to attend the OC and be at the official practice on 6 February. They will then go to Switzerland for a training camp and return shortly before the pairs event. I guess this means rules allow this, otherwise they would not be speaking about it publicly.

 

[Skaterbob]

Excluding the racism she encountered non-stop that he will never be exposed to, if only anyone cared enough about Figure Skating for there to be the same pressure and exposure in the Figure Skating Team Event. It's a blip in the scheme of things.

Yea that was really messed up. I was very unhappy when I heard people talking bad about her here even in Texas.

 

[Vagabond]

Unlike ISU Championships, the Olympics stretch over a bit more than two full weeks. It is not uncommon for Olympic skaters who train in other countries to go back to their home training centers between the Opening Ceremony and their competitions, and it would be extremely difficult to enforce a rule preventing a skater who trained in Switzerland, for example, to shuttle between Milan and his or her home base.

 

[Karen-W]

Excluding the racism she encountered non-stop that he will never be exposed to, if only anyone cared enough about Figure Skating for there to be the same pressure and exposure in the Figure Skating Team Event. It's a blip in the scheme of things.

I think it really depends on how things play out with regard to the Team Event and the Men's Event. If he doesn't win the Men's event running away with it or loses the gold while also not doing both segments of the TE and the USA loses gold by 1 point or on a tiebreak, it could tarnish his star. The FS TE is such a new addition to the Olympic schedule and this is the first time the USA is going in as defending gold medalists. It just doesn't have the same prestige (yet) as an Artistic Gymnastics Team gold.

 

[Andrea82]

Yes, he did.

I'm fuzzy about the practice restrictions during the Olympics. I know for ISU Championships, once you set foot on official practice ice, you can't practice elsewhere, but is that the case for the Olympics? Seems like it would be awfully unfair to the pairs & women who are doing the Team Event to have their practice time limited during the first week of the Olympics.

During the broadcast of Euros on Italian TV, Franca Bianconi (who was doing the technical commentary) indeed said that one of the reasons of renting outside-rinks by some teams is that there is a lot of days between team event and individual event.
As already said USA team will be in Bergamo, she also said Japanese team have rented Varese rink (where JGP took place this season).

 

[kwanfan1818]

At one point when this first became a thing, there was some discussion about how there is a restriction, but since the TE isn't the same as the individual events, and restrictions are event-specific, they could practice elsewhere until the official individual event practices started.. This would be moot for the first two disciplines after the TE, but applicable to the last two disciplines.

In 2010 before there was a TE, the Russian team rented out rink time in Abbottsford starting a few weeks before the Olympics, which allowed the skaters to practice and acclimate. I don't think they went back there to practice after their official individual discipline practices began.

 

[Karen-W]

At one point when this first became a thing, there was some discussion about how there is a restriction, but since the TE isn't the same as the individual events, and restrictions are event-specific, they could practice elsewhere until the official individual event practices started.. This would be moot for the first two disciplines after the TE, but applicable to the last two disciplines.

In 2010 before there was a TE, the Russian team rented out rink time in Abbottsford starting a few weeks before the Olympics, which allowed the skaters to practice and acclimate. I don't think they went back there to practice after their official individual discipline practices began.

Well, again, looking at the official colored time schedule... Official practices for ALL disciplines begin on Feb 3rd.

But, as others have noted, the Olympics has always been a special competition with regard to practices, etc. I remember hearing way back in 1992 that the US women went to train privately away from Albertville after the opening ceremony and I'm fairly sure that's always been the case for the skaters whose individual events were the 2nd week of the Olympics.