Questions about qualifying spots for the 2026 Olympics?

[victorskid]

You might want to consult this "explainer" that Jackie Wong has prepared:

Deciphering the 2026 Olympic figure skating qualification process — Rocker Skating - Analysis by Jackie Wong

How does figure skating qualification work for the 2026 Winter Olympics? Here’s a primer

www.rockerskating.com

I'm sure questions will still come up during individual events but this might be useful

 

[Karen-W]

At the halfway mark in the Women's competition -

Only the USA & JPN can still potentially qualify 3 spots.
KOR & SUI could potentially qualify 2 + 1 Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) entry; but will probably just wind up with 2 spots & no OQE entry.
Any other country that finishes in the Top 10 on Friday will qualify 1 + 1 OQE entry.
Every other country in the FS has earned 1 spot.

 

[Debbie S]

Every other country in the FS has earned 1 spot.

So this is absolutely certain? Even if a skater finishes 24th?

 

[Karen-W]

So this is absolutely certain? Even if a skater finishes 24th?

Yes, the math works out so that every single country that makes the FS will earn an Olympic spot.

 

[Karen-W]

So this is absolutely certain? Even if a skater finishes 24th?

Yes, the math works out so that every single country that makes the FS will earn an Olympic spot.

ETA - this only applies to Men & Women.

Dance & Pairs are a whole different kettle o' fish.

 

[Karen-W]

Okay, so pairs update...

Still in contention (with help/moving up necessary)
3 spots - CAN (7+10 = 17, SDDes & PerMich need to move up 4 spots collectively)
2 spots + 1 OQE entry - ITA (2+14 = 16, ConMac & GhiAmbro need to move up 3 spots collectively) & USA (5+9 = 14, KamOShea & EfiMit need to move up 1 spot collectively)

Likely -
2 spots - GER
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - JPN (NagaMori failing to make the FS means JPN can only qualify 1 spot here), GEO, HUN & AUS
1 spot - UZB, GBR, NED

UKR, SUI & POL need to move ahead of DanTsi and also stay ahead of VaanCler in order to qualify a spot. Even if VaanCler won't be able to use the spot because he doesn't have citizenship, FIN will still be awarded the spot if one is available (say CAN only earns 2 spots). If FIN doesn't use the spot earned at Worlds, it will be reallocated to the 4th place finisher at the OQE rather than the team who finished immediately behind them here at Worlds.

 

[kwanfan1818]

The article says "In the case that there are quota places unused from 2025 Worlds, those extra spots will be added to the Beijing qualifying event; if this happens, it often only happens in the pairs event."

However, it is also possible in singles when the 24 skaters who make the FS lose one or two spots. Examples would be if there were three skaters in the FS, and they place 4, 15, 20, earning only two. Or they placed 13, 16, 20, earning only one. Or if there are two skaters who place 14 and 20, earning only one. Those lost spots go into the qualifying pool. Members who lose spots don't get entries into the OQE, either.

The reason it feels odd that all 24 skaters can earn Olympic spots, if no spots are lost by that member, is that, before the rule change, a country could earn more spots than they had skaters in the FS, while now, you can earn a maximum of the number of skaters in the FS through Worlds. So we're used to the last five or so singles skaters who made the free skate having to earn a spot at the OQE.

 

[Karen-W]

Pairs

Olympics
2 spots + 1 OQE entry - USA
2 spots - GER, ITA & CAN
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - JPN, GEO, HUN, AUS, UZB
1 spot - GBR, POL & NED

16 spots total

Worlds
3 spots - USA
2 spots - JPN, GER, ITA, GEO, CAN, HUN, AUS, UZB
1 spot - everyone else

Grand Prix Seeded 1-6
Miura/Kihara
Hase/Volodin
Conti/Macii
Metelkina/Berulava
Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps
Efimova/Mitrofanov

Grand Prix Invited 7-10
Kam/O'Shea
Pavlova/Sviatchenko
Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore
Geynish/Chigirev

 

[Karen-W]

Women

Olympics
3 spots - USA & JPN
2 spots - KOR & SUI
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - BEL & EST
1 spot - AUT, BUL, CAN, FIN, FRA, GBR, ISR, ITA, KAZ, LTU, POL & ROU

24 spots total

Worlds
3 spots - USA & JPN
2 spots - BEL, EST, KOR & SUI
1 spot - everyone else

Grand Prix Seeded 1-6
Alysa Liu
Kaori Sakamoto
Mone Chiba
Isabeau Levito
Amber Glenn
Wakaba Higuchi

Grand Prix Invited 7-12
Nina Pinzarrone
Niina Petrokina
Haein Lee
Chaeyeon Kim
Madeline Schizas
Kimmy Repond

 

[Karen-W]

Dance

Olympics
3 spots - USA & CAN
2 spots - GBR, FRA, FIN, & CZE
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - ITA, ESP & GEO
1 spot - GER & KOR

19 spots total

Worlds
3 spots - USA & CAN
2 spots - GBR, ITA, ESP, FRA, GEO, FIN & CZE
1 spot - everyone else

Grand Prix Seeded 1-6
Chock/Bates
Gilles/Poirier
Fear/Gibson
Guignard/Fabbri
Carreira/Ponomarenko
Smart/Dieck

Grand Prix Invited 7-10
Lajoie/Lagha
Lopareva/Brissaud
Green/Parsons
Davis Smolkin

 

[skatingguy]

Team Event

To qualify a team must entries in at least 3 disciplines, and after the World Championships only 9 countries have met that requirement. We'll see whether we get to 10 or more countries eligible after the Olympic Qualifying event in September. If we don't than the point standings are some what irrelevant as all eligible countries will qualify.

Canada
France
Georgia
Great Britain
Italy
Japan
Poland
South Korea
United States of America

 

[Karen-W]

Team Event

To qualify a team must entries in at least 3 disciplines, and after the World Championships only 9 countries have met that requirement. We'll see whether we get to 10 or more countries eligible after the Olympic Qualifying event in September. If we don't than the point standings are some what irrelevant as all eligible countries will qualify.

Canada
France
Georgia
Great Britain
Italy
Japan
Poland
South Korea
United States of America

No, they have to field entries in at least 3 disciplines. Theoretically, a country with 2 entries could compete if there was a quote spot available for them to use for the 3rd discipline. The problem, though, is that I don't envision there being any extra quota spots available for those countries with 2 entries.

 

[Karen-W]

Men

Olympics
3 spots - USA & JPN
2 spots + 1 OQE entry - FRA
2 spots - ITA & LAT
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - KAZ, KOR & GEO
1 spot - AZE, CAN, CHN, ESP, EST, POL, SUI, SVK & SWE

24 spots total

Worlds
3 spots - USA, KAZ, JPN & FRA
2 spots - KOR, GEO, ITA & LAT
1 spot - everyone else

Grand Prix Seeded 1-6
Ilia Malinin
Mikhail Shaidorov
Yuma Kagiyama
Adam Siao Him Fa
Kevin Aymoz
Shun Sato

Grand Prix Invited 7-12
Junhwan Cha
Jason Brown
Nika Egadze
Nikolaj Memola
Deniss Vasiljevs
Lukas Britschgi

 

[skatingguy]

No, they have to field entries in at least 3 disciplines. Theoretically, a country with 2 entries could compete if there was a quote spot available for them to use for the 3rd discipline. The problem, though, is that I don't envision there being any extra quota spots available for those countries with 2 entries.

That's not how things have worked in the past, and it's not what's in the Olympic qualifying document. For example, in 2022 Ukraine got the final spot in the event despite being ranked much lower than other countries that only had entries in 2 disciplines because Ukraine had entries in 3 disciplines.

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Milano-Cortina-2026/qualification-system/Qualification-System-for-Figure-Skating.pdf

Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Qualification - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Karen-W]

That's not how things have worked in the past, and it's not what's in the Olympic qualifying document. For example, in 2022 Ukraine got the final spot in the event despite being ranked much lower than other countries that only had entries in 2 disciplines because Ukraine had entries in 3 disciplines.

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Milano-Cortina-2026/qualification-system/Qualification-System-for-Figure-Skating.pdf

Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Qualification - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yes, countries with entries in 4 disciplines get priority, then countries with entries in 3 disciplines. If the field still isn't full, you drop to countries with 2 entries, presuming there are quota spots still available.

Though, this may all be a moot point if a peace deal between Russia & Ukraine can be brokered - if that happens, all bets are off regarding the OQE and whether the AIN process remains in place. If Russia is back by then or sometime in the fall, it wouldn't surprise me if they're allowed to compete in the TE.

 

[Karen-W]

To follow up on the Team Event likely qualifying countries -

Qualified in 4 Disciplines at 2025 Worlds -
Canada
Italy
United States

Qualified in 3 Disciplines at 2025 Worlds and LIKELY to earn a spot in the 4th Discipline at the OQE -
Japan - Men, Women & Pairs - with 4 ice dance spots available at the OQE & Yoshida/Morita finishing 22nd in the RD, Japan looks well-positioned to outright qualify in Ice Dance as well
Georgia - Men, Pairs & Ice Dance - Gubanova should not have a problem earning one of the 5 women's spots available at the OQE

Qualified in 3 Disciplines at 2025 Worlds and UNLIKELY to earn a spot in the 4th Discipline at the OQE -
France - Men, Women & Ice Dance - seems rather unlikely that Kovalev/Kovalev will earn one of the 3 pairs spots up for grabs at the OQE with Unnamed Russian & American teams as well as China entering either Sui/Li (new parternship) or Zhang/Huang (JGPF champs)
Great Britain - Women, Pairs & Ice Dance - Appleby had a rough competition this week, he is going to be on the cusp of earning one of the 5 men's spots up for grabs at the OQE
Korea - Men, Women & Ice Dance - they do not have a pairs team that can compete internationally yet (possibly this May, Cho's new partner will get his release from the RusFed), but it's hard to imagine they'll earn one of the 3 spots at the OQE, and it's also hard to imagine the Korean government would give him a passport just so they can field a full team in the Team Event (I know, they handed out passports like candy ahead of Pyeongchang, but that was a home Olympics)
Poland - Men, Women & Pairs - Dovhal/Kulesza will certainly put in a good effort to earn one of the 4 ice dance spots at the OQE, but based on their RD score here, I don't see them qualifying

Now, here is where things get interesting at the OQE...

Countries Likely to earn spots in at least 3 Disciplines between Worlds & the OQE -
Germany - Pairs & Ice Dance - their women have no shot, and neither does Starostin in the men, however Genrikh Gartung is their junior man who will be senior age-eligible next season & he's got a solid 4z among other jumps. His SB is 218.94 & there are three other guys, including Appleby, who are within 3 points of that, but his SB would slot him in as the 5th qualifier at the OQE and that SB is from juniors where he can't do a quad in the SP & no step seq in the FS - adding those in and he could get a respectable 225-230 score, IMO. In 2021, the 5th place men's qualifier at Nebelhorn was Litvintsev with a score of 228.65 - if Gartung can match that, it seems likely he will pick up one of the 5 spots available this year.
China - Men - their ice dance team has no shot; An should have qualified this week, but she may not get the shot - it might go to Yi Zhu, whose SB is actually higher than An's. Whomever they send, both have a bit of breathing room on the SB list with scores that would have them qualifying in the 4th spot at the OQE. In pairs - Sui/Li are a new partnership and Zhang/Huang are moving up from juniors - whichever team the CFSA selects, I'd bet on them grabbing the 3rd spot (along with Russia & the USA). Zhang/Huang's SB as juniors is 8 points higher than Kovalev/Kovalev.

Of the 6 teams that either are qualified or could qualify entries in 3 disciplines, it would then come down to points for the 10th spot in the Team Event. Additionally, there are the 5 quota spots available for the Team Event - priority for those spots is highest points gets first dibs. Right now, the points total for the 6 teams looks like this:

France - 1870
Great Britain - 1642
Germany - 1593
Korea - 1355
China - 1090
Poland - 659

Presumably, France would use 2 for Pairs, Great Britain would use 1 for Men, and Germany would use 1 for Women. That would leave Korea, China & Poland unable to field a full team. Keep in mind, the points are going to change as we go through the Grand Prix season next fall, and it's entirely possible that some of the countries won't wind up qualifying in all 4 or even 3 disciplines. But, right now, we can't assume that Poland is in simply because they've qualified in 3 disciplines as of Worlds.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Dance

Olympics
3 spots - USA & CAN
2 spots - GBR, FRA, FIN, & CZE
1 spot + 1 OQE entry - ITA, ESP & GEO
1 spot - GER & KOR

19 spots total

Worlds
3 spots - USA & CAN
2 spots - GBR, ITA, ESP, FRA, GEO, FIN & CZE
1 spot - everyone else

Grand Prix Seeded 1-6
Chock/Bates
Gilles/Poirier
Fear/Gibson
Guignard/Fabbri
Carreira/Ponomarenko
Smart/Dieck

Grand Prix Invited 7-10
Lajoie/Lagha
Lopareva/Brissaud
Green/Parsons
Davis Smolkin

Karen what was the rule or what allowed Finland to qualify two spots for the Olympics in this case?

And Czech Republic now that I go over it again..

 

[tony]

Karen what was the rule or what allowed Finland to qualify two spots for the Olympics in this case?

And Czech Republic now that I go over it again..

28 or less, same as always.

 

[Karen-W]

Karen what was the rule or what allowed Finland to qualify two spots for the Olympics in this case?

And Czech Republic now that I go over it again..

FIN & CZE both had 2 teams in the FD & their total placements combined was between 14-28 - each had 25 points.