2026 Olympics Team Event - Strategy, Predictions & Discussion

[ChillSkate]

Unfortunately, Jackie Wong is reporting there was a problem with the surface of the podium used for the team event. Blades were damaged, so the medal-winning skaters need to scramble to get their blades sharpened before their next practice -- and for the dancers, before tomorrow's competition.

That's ridiculous. There really should be a requirement that there is at least 1 day in between the last day of the Team Event and the first day of individual competition. Even though Ice Dancers didn't compete today, they were still obviously heavily engaged in today's event from both a time and energy perspective.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I may be mis-remembering, but didn’t Arutunian sharpen and care for Nathan Chen’s blades? If so, he is going to have 21 new best friends…

 

[Private Citizen]

Jackie didn't know at the time he recorded the podcast. He said he noticed one of the Italian male skaters (I don't remember which) running his hand across the surface of the podium at some point. I guess he later was told there was an issue.

The Japanese skaters were all touching and feeling the surface while they were standing there and the U.S. was being called. I thought it was really weird that they were doing this, but it seemed like they knew there was a problem. The US team all jumped on this surface. Hopefully that didn’t make it worse. Ai yay yay.

 

[MacMadame]

I may be mis-remembering, but didn’t Arutunian sharpen and care for Nathan Chen’s blades? If so, he is going to have 21 new best friends…

There is probably an official skate sharpener on the team as well. And the IOC should have one on-site too.

 

[Rukia]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure USFS brings a skate tech with them. But my coach would touch up our blades sometimes with a hand file, so maybe it's something easy they can fix quickly lol. I'd hate to compete on freshly sharpened blades.

 

[Andrea82]

And here's a clip from the Team USA's IG with Breezy talking about it at the press conference -

Team USA on Instagram: "@breezyjohnsonski’s Olympic gold medal did not pass the jump test 😂 #WinterOlympics"

79K likes, 580 comments - teamusa on February 8, 2026: "@breezyjohnsonski’s Olympic gold medal did not pass the jump test 😂 #WinterOlympics".

www.instagram.com

It sounds like the metal bar across the top of the ribbon opening is too thin and they're snapping whenever the athletes jump or bounce around in celebration.

Indeed. A German biathlete lost it while dancing celebrating

DSV Biathlon on Instagram: "Are they not meant to be celebrated? 😉 #SkiDeutschland #biathlon #olympics #milanocortina2026"

36K likes, 311 comments - dsv_biathlon on February 8, 2026: "Are they not meant to be celebrated? 😉 #SkiDeutschland #biathlon #olympics #milanocortina2026".

www.instagram.com

 

[Jammers]

That's ridiculous. There really should be a requirement that there is at least 1 day in between the last day of the Team Event and the first day of individual competition. Even though Ice Dancers didn't compete today, they were still obviously heavily engaged in today's event from both a time and energy perspective.

I say a two day minimum before the individual events begin. And the Men should never skate so soon after the TE since they have the most taxing programs. Why are we not going back to how it used to be Pairs first then Men, Ice Dance and finally the Ladies and no overlapping like they are doing for some weird reason for the Men and Ice Dance. Or how about move Ice Dance to the 10th and 12th and move the Men to the 11th and give them one more day to recover. Why are they giving them 2 days off after the SP just move the SP up to the 11th and they get a extra day too.