By DAVE SKRETTA
Figure skating has long been a cornerstone of the Olympics, pre-dating the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 with appearances at the Summer Games in 1908 and 1920. The program has changed over the years, and now includes men’s and women’s competitions, the pairs event and ice dance, along with a team competition that combines all of the disciplines. Here’s what to know about figure skating at the Milan Cortina Games.
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How it works
In the singles and pairs events, each skater or team performs a short program and free skate, which is a longer program that contains more elements. For each program, they receive a technical score based on the values of those elements and their execution, and a component score, which judges such things as skating skills and performance. The technical and component score are added together for each program, and the short program and free skate scores are added together to determine the overall medals.
The ice dance competition operates similarly, only instead of a short program each team does a rhythm dance based around a theme determined by the International Skating Union. This season’s theme is “music, dance styles and feeling of the 1990s.”
Who to watch
The U.S. is coming off a dominant world championships in Boston in March last year in which Ilia Malinin won the men’s title, Alysa Liu won the women’s gold medal, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates defended their ice dance championship. All will be favored to win gold in Italy, with Malinin the overwhelming favorite to follow up compatriot Nathan Chen’s gold medal from the Beijing Games.
FILE – Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, compete in the ice dance’s rhythm dance segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
The women’s and pairs competitions will be wide open, though, with the Japanese the biggest threats to Liu and U.S. teammate Amber Glenn, both of whom have gold-medal aspirations. There is no clear favorite in the pairs event.
Venues and dates
Figure skating will take place at the Unipol Forum, though it will be called the Milan Ice Skating Arena during the Olympics. Built in 1988, the arena will host short-track speed-skating along with figure skating during the Winter Games.
The competition begins Feb. 6 and runs nearly every day through Feb. 19, when the women’s free skate wraps up competition. The traditional exhibition gala is schedule for Feb. 21.
Memorable moments
Figure skating at the Olympics has been filled with highs and lows, on the ice and off. Famous names such as Sonja Henie, Dick Button, Peggy Fleming and Katarina Witt have become synonymous with the Winter Games, while more recent stars Yuzuru Hanyu, Tara Lipinski and Yuna Kim have left their indelible mark. But the sport also has generated plenty of controversy, from the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding assault leading up to the 1994 Games, to the scoring scandal in pairs at the 2002 Games, or the doping case of Russian teen Kamila Valieva four years ago in Beijing.
FILE – Yuma Kagiyama, of Japan, competes in the men’s short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
Fun facts
The singles and pairs events have been contested at every Winter Games since 1972, while ice dance was added in 1976 and the team event introduced in 2014.
The U.S. has won the most gold medals (17) and overall medals (54) in figure skating. Russia is second in gold medals with 14 while Canada is second in overall medals with 29.
In 2022, the ISU voted to raise the minimum age for skating in the Olympics to 17, citing “the physical and mental health and emotional well-being of the skaters.”
FILE – Kaori Sakamoto, of Japan, competes in the women’s free skating segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada hold the record for most Olympic medals with five, three gold and two silver. Sonja Henie of Norway, Irina Rodnina of the Soviet Union and Gilles Grafström of Sweden share the record for golds with Virtue and Moir with three apiece.
The U.S. has not won a pairs medal since Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard in 1988.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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