Olympic Figure Skating creates unforgettable moments

Figure Skating at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics has caught the eye of many new fans, with the competition being closer than ever. In all five events, who will win the medals is too close to call, and it’s got new and old fans on the edge of their seats. The figure skating events are being held at the Forum di Milano in Milan, Italy, and take place between the 6th and 19th February.

The competition started with the team event, in which 10 countries competed in all four disciplines with both the short and free skate programs, each allowing the skater to earn points for their team. Their overall points after eight routines decide the winner. The ten countries that qualified for the event were: USA, Japan, Italy, Canada, Georgia, France, Great Britain, South Korea, China, and Poland. All ten teams compete in the first round of skating before being narrowed down to the top five for the free skates.

The event was close between the Japanese and American teams as the gold medal came down to the last two skaters of the men's free dance, Ilia Malinin (USA) and Shun Sato (Japan). Both teams went into the final skates with the same number of points, adding pressure to their young male skaters. Malinin managed to come out on top, scoring just over five more points than Sato, despite falling on a jump and secured the USA their 2nd team Gold (the first being in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics).

Another notable mention is Italy, who came 3rd in the team event on their home ice, creating a historic moment in achieving their first figure skating team event medal as well as their first Olympic figure skating medal since 2014.

The Ice Dance was the first individual Olympic medal given out this year's Olympics. Ice dance is a form of figure skating that focuses on musicality and intricate footwork rather than lifts, throws and jumps. The teams first took to the ice to dance a 1990s-themed rhythm dance and a free skate.

With a close competition, Frances Beaudry and Cicerone beat the USA's Chock and Bates in a close call for the gold, edging them by 1.43 points. Despite Chock and Bates being favourites before the competition, reigning Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry took the gold.

A highlight of the Ice Dance competition was Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who are known for their Spice Girls rhythm dance and Scottish-themed free dance. Their dances were different and exciting, but due to an unfortunate fall in their free dance the finished seventh, only 13 points off the podium.

The next individual medal was for the men. Ilia Malinin (USA) went into the Olympic Games as a clear favourite for the gold, and he looked set to achieve that after finishing first in the short program by over five points.

The free skate brought drama as many skaters had falls and imperfect routines. The expected top three – Malinin (USA), Kagiyama (Japan) and Shun (Japan) – all had mistakes in their routines, opening it for Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan) to have a perfect routine and steal a shock gold medal. Malinin's score meant that he finished in 8th place.

The final medal scores went viral for their funny reactions and were widely overjoyed with their results.

In the pairs skating, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryunichi Kihara won gold after making an incredible comeback from fifth place after the short program and earned Japan their first-ever Olympic pairs skating medal.

Second place also made Olympic history for their country as the Georgian team Anastasio Metelkina and Luca Berulava won Georgia’s first ever Olympic medal in figure skating with two technically strong routines.

The Bronze medal went to Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, who were first place as the short program but fell to fourth in the free skate, giving them third overall and Germany's first figure skating medal since 2018.

The women's single event saw the last medals of this year's Olympics for figure skating. Every skater did amazing routines, but American skater Alysa Liu came out on top. Liu did two strong routines in both the Short program and the free skate. Her victory is the first for an American woman since 2002, and she is the first adult winner in over ten years.

The second and third spots were taken by Japanese skaters Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. This silver was important to Sakamoto, as this was her final Olympics before retirement and marked her highest Olympics finish. Third place, Ami Nakai, is a newcomer to the Olympic season and won bronze at only 17 years old, showing her amazing skating in this achievement.

This year's Winter Olympics have shown all fans, new and old, amazing results and shocking moments that will be brought up in years to come. Well done to all the skaters.

Bring on 2030.

Shock after Shock! Olympic Figure Skating creates unforgettable moments

By Emily Shakespeare