2026 Olympics Team Event - Strategy, Predictions & Discussion

[Karen-W]

Thanks! Is there a reason for the different colors? I think green is who is scheduled for the SP/RD? But what's the red?

Yes, green is who is scheduled for the SP/RD and the red/orange is who is scheduled for the FS/FD.

Also, I just defaulted to Shin being the Korean woman in the SP. Jia & Haein's SP average is within tenths of each other, so they're interchangeable, IMO, but I expect Shin to be given the assignment since she won Korean Nats.

 

[BaileyCatts]

.......Word out on the streets is that Rizzo is penciled in for the FS, with Grassl doing the SP. If that's accurate then Georgia could easily wind up with a big point difference to make up in the FS/FD phase because Grassl, both the French men and Cha all have the ability to easily out-score a clean Egadze in the SP.

Oh please please please for Matteo and for Italy getting that Bronze!! I want Matteo to get a medal!

 

[DreamSkates]

So glad i'm retired now and don't have to worry about missing anything and can choose when i'll get some sleep. Still kinda sucks that the TE is in the middle of the night here but at least when the individual events start they will be in the late morning early afternoon.

I'm just hoping that the times posted in Peacock for each event, are correct. They've been wrong before. Aargh!

 

[skatfan]

I'm just hoping that the times posted in Peacock for each event, are correct. They've been wrong before. Aargh!

You might want to subscribe to Jackie Wong's Rocker Skating FS schedule. The link is here:

Skating Events Calendar — Rocker Skating - Figure Skating Analysis by Jackie Wong

www.rockerskating.com

It's a good way to double-check what the TV/Streaming folks are doing.

 

[Allskate]

I was just listening to The Runthrough's episode previewing the TE, and they made some good points. i was so focused on the time between the TE men's FS and the individual men's SP. I didn't realize that, after the individual men's SP, the ice is being used for two full days for speed skating, so there is more of a gap than usual between the short and long in the individual men's event, giving Ilia more time to rest. Adam also pointed out that, for the last two seasons, Ilia has done back to back GPs with travel in between with no problem. He thinks that Ilia not only would love being the man of the hour in the TE FS (which I totally agree with), but that he might actual feed off of it and gain even more confidence and momentum for the individual event.

They also convinced me that C&B doing both team segment might actually help them in the individual dance competition I hadn't really thought about how the scores and placements in the TE might build momentum and reputation for the ice dancers. They think this has happened with ice dance in the past.

 

[tony]

I was just listening to The Runthrough's episode previewing the TE, and they made some good points. i was so focused on the time between the TE men's FS and the individual men's SP. I didn't realize that, after the individual men's SP, the ice is being used for two full days for speed skating, so there is more of a gap than usual between the short and long in the individual men's event, giving Ilia more time to rest.

It’s not just because of speed skating. The free dance comes after the men’s short.

 

[MacMadame]

I'm just hoping that the times posted in Peacock for each event, are correct. They've been wrong before. Aargh!

They have? I've never seen them off by more than a few minutes.

 

[Allskate]

It’s not just because of speed skating. The free dance comes after the men’s short.

Yes. I knew about the dance. My point is not about what comes in between the short and the long. My point is that the time that Ilia has between the SP and FP is longer than I realized, which gives Ilia more time to rest. He has 72 hours between the SP and LP, which is unusual. I had just been looking at the order of events on the figure skating schedule and hadn't even noticed that there were some days in there without figure skating.

 

[tony]

Yes. I knew about the dance. My point is not about what comes in between the short and the long. My point is that the time that Ilia has between the SP and FP is longer than I realized, which gives Ilia more time to rest. He has 72 hours between the SP and LP, which is unusual. I had just been looking at the order of events on the figure skating schedule and hadn't even noticed that there were some days in there without figure skating.

I was making the point that the ice was not being used solely for two full days of speed skating. Short track always shares a rink with figure skating and every discipline used to get a day in between their events. Now with the team event having to fit in, things get modified to whatever the organizer can fit in.

He still would skate 4 times in a week, and if he doesn’t wanna do that, he’s not gonna be forced to.

 

[Karen-W]

He still would skate 4 times in a week, and if he doesn’t wanna do that, he’s not gonna be forced to.

And that wasn't the point that was being made on The Runthrough, which @Allskate correctly summarized. It's that Ilia has done back-to-back GPs and may be better equipped/prepared to handle the challenge of skating 4 times in a week, especially with 2 days to rest between the Men's SP & FS next week.

I don't know that I agree with their assessment since Ilia only did back-to-back GPs (SkAm & SCI) in 2024. This season he had a week between GPdF and SCI, same as in 2023 where there was a week between SkAm and GPdF.

 

[YukiNieve]

Brian Boitano thinks that Ilia should not do both TE SP and FS.

Will Ilia Malinin skate both parts of Olympics team event? What we know

Ilia Malinin and his coaches would prefer he skate just the short program in the team event to preserve his body for the men's individual event.

www.usatoday.com

Speaking on USA TODAY Sports’ "Milan Magic" podcast, 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano believes Malinin should not skate both team events.

“It’s too much responsibility,” Boitano said. “I hope that Ilia doesn’t choose (both) or they don’t try to put pressure on him to do it. I really don’t want him to have to do the short and the long. He’s dependable, he’ll do a great job, he will make the best of it, but at the same time, they have to start trusting these younger skaters. They have made the Olympic team. These guys are playing in the big ball park and you have to start relying on them.”

 

[Allskate]

Brian Boitano thinks that Ilia should not do both TE SP and FS.

I hope Ilia does what Ilia wants to do. Amber talked today about how everyone has to do what is best for their physical and mental health. But, it may not be that easy to figure that out. I wouldn't be surprised if Ilia himself is torn. The fact that he could make the difference in the TE may put pressure on him to do the LP. However, as he said in the press conference today, he loves getting the attention and anticipation and skating up to that. He could be the last skater in the TE, and there is a very good chance that his skate would be the deciding factor. That would be hard for him to resist. He might end up regretting not taking advantage of that opportunity, not just for the gold medal, but for the ovations, accolades, and history. If the individual men's event were last, I don't think he would hesitate to do both segments in the TE.

But, I'm sure that he wants to absolutely crush it in the individual event. Not just win, but by a large margin in record-setting fashion. He may feel like that is his priority and that he needs more of a break to accomplish that. I would totally respect that decision.

 

[Karen-W]

Confirmation from Jackie that Kevin will be doing the SP and Adam will be doing the FS if France makes the FS/FD phase.

https://x.com/i/status/2019321260707029375

 

[Allskate]

Confirmation from Jackie that Kevin will be doing the SP and Adam will be doing the FS if France makes the FS/FD phase.

https://x.com/i/status/2019321260707029375

Interesting that Adam and LFB&C all seem to be slating themselves for the FP/FD.

I really, really hope that Kevin skates well. He is such a great skater when he is on, and Europeans was so sad.

 

[Karen-W]

Interesting that Adam and LFB&C all seem to be slating themselves for the FP/FD.

I really, really hope that Kevin skates well. He is such a great skater when he is on, and Europeans was so sad.

Actually, FBCiz are doing the RD per reports I've read. We should know soon enough since the TE RD Confirmation mtg is happening right now.

 

[PRlady]

Interesting that Adam and LFB&C all seem to be slating themselves for the FP/FD.

I really, really hope that Kevin skates well. He is such a great skater when he is on, and Europeans was so sad.

Adam’s history with SPs is I think France made the right choice.

 

[skatfan]

Adam’s history with SPs is I think France made the right choice.

Kevin’s SP at Euros was brutal too.

 

[Andrea82]

Actually, FBCiz are doing the RD per reports I've read. We should know soon enough since the TE RD Confirmation mtg is happening right now.

Those with the X should be the ones skating Women Short, Pairs Short and Rhythm Dance

https://wmr-static-assets.scd.dgplatform.net/wmr/static/_PDF/OWG2026/FSK/2026-02-05/FSKXTEAM--------------------------__C32E2_2.0.pdf

Among those who had a choices

Liu
Sakamoto
Shin

Conti/Macii
Kam/O'Shea
Miura/Kihara

Chock/Bates
Fournier-B/Cizeron
Fear/Gibson
Gilles/Poirier

 

[text_skate]

start lists for tomorrow are out

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/fsk/te/x/team--------------/qual/0004dc--/result

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/fsk/te/x/team--------------/qual/0003pr--/result

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/fsk/te/x/team--------------/qual/0002ld--/result

 

[skatfan]

Just as I thought, it’s Liu in the SP.

 

[PRlady]

Just as I thought, it’s Liu in the SP.

Considering how successful that SP has been, and Alysa’s track record, best choice.

 

[YukiNieve]

Even though the list of men is not announced yet, there will be practice today for men as well, so that may give you a hint…

 

[Evgeniafan]

Confirmation from Jackie that Kevin will be doing the SP and Adam will be doing the FS if France makes the FS/FD phase.

https://x.com/i/status/2019321260707029375

I hope Kevin is team captain.and

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

My bias but hoping G/P finish ahead of F/G tomorrow.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

No big surprises in the SPs. I think the bigger question will be who skates the FS for most teams who make it. The only things that were really up in the air were if FB&C would skate at all, which we found out a few days ago they would, and which American lady would skate, but we also got confirmation of that recently, correct? For everything else, the choices were very clear. The men for Italy and France were more debatable, but we now know each of those (and they technically haven't been published).

 

[Taso]

My bias but hoping G/P finish ahead of F/G tomorrow.

Considering how the injuries have changed the season so much for D-S/D in pairs :sad:, I sadly think this will help G&P in Canada's only medal contender against the UK's only medal contender

 

[Bulletsdad]

Norovirus going around the Finnish Ice Hockey Team. I hope all the teams are taking precautions and staying healthy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/1qwr1u2/norovirus_in_olympic_village/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

 

[MacMadame]

I ran two scenarios. In one, USA splits Men and Dance and all the placements match everyone's average score (from @Karen-W's list). In that scenarios, JPN wins by 1 point. Then I ran what I think should/will happen which is USA splits Dance and Women and USA wins by 6 points!

I'll try Dance and Women split but results are based on average scores for each skater/team during the RD ice cut.

 

[Karen-W]

I ran two scenarios. In one, USA splits Men and Dance and all the placements match everyone's average score (from @Karen-W's list). In that scenarios, JPN wins by 1 point. Then I ran what I think should/will happen which is USA splits Dance and Women and USA wins by 6 points!

I'll try Dance and Women split but results are based on average scores for each skater/team during the RD ice cut.

It's been pretty much confirmed that the US isn't splitting Dance.

 

[MacMadame]

It's been pretty much confirmed that the US isn't splitting Dance.

I still think it's a bad idea. They don't need to for USA to win and I think they'll lose to FRA in the TE which doesn't set them up well for the individual. Plus there is Evan's back.