Ilia Malinin leads Team USA to 2nd consecutive gold in Olympic figure skating team event
Team USA defended its Olympic figure skating team event gold medal on Sunday after Ilia "Quad God" Malinin ushered the team to victory at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, attempting a total of five quad jumps.
The U.S. and Japan were tied at 59 points before the men's free skate, the final event of the team competition. It came down to Malinin's performance to decide the podium placement, and the 21-year-old two-time World champion didn't disappoint. He earned a score of 200.03, topping Japan's Shun Sato (194.86) who substituted for Yuma Kagiyama who outperformed Malinin on Saturday in the short program.
Sato, who skated after Malinin, performed a routine of a lifetime that left fans fearing it would be enough to push Japan ahead.
In the end, Malinin's technical prowess edged out the competition and Japan will head into the individual competitions on Monday with a silver medal. Host country Italy took home the bronze medal.
The Olympic figure skating team event on Sunday consisted of four separate events: free ice dance, free pair skating, women's single free skate and men's single free skate.
Amber Glenn debuts on Olympic ice
North Texas native Amber Glenn placed third in the women's free skate event, which took place before the men's on Sunday.
When the 26-year-old took the ice, the first-time Olympian became the oldest U.S. women's singles skater to compete in an Olympics in 98 years, according to U.S. Figure Skating. She was also the first out LGBTQ woman to skate at an Olympic Games.
Following her free skate, in which she shakily landed her hallmark triple axel, Glenn told NBC that she felt "disappointed" but she was "very proud of the fight." She was the only woman to attempt the triple axel in the single free skate.
"I just felt really not my best today and I'm just really disappointed in that," she said. Her performance earned the team eight points.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto, who is retiring after this season, had a flawless routine and helped bring her team into a tie.
Sakamoto, Glenn and Alysa Liu, who competed in the team event's single short program on Saturday, will all vie for the individual gold on Feb. 17 in the short program and Feb. 17 in the free skate.
Pair skaters Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea take 4th
Team USA pair skating duo Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea place fourth on Sunday in the second team event, after Japan, Georgia and Italy.
In Sunday's competition, the pair skated to "Sweet Dreams," "Eleanor Rigby," and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," the same medley of songs they performed to at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis last month. Their performance in the second section of the team event earned the U.S. seven points.
The figure skating duo based in Colorado Springs first teamed up in 2022.
Both began skating at 4 years old. Kam previously skated with Ian Meyh, and O'Shea previously skated with Chelsea Liu, as well as Tarah Kayne, with whom he was the 2016 U.S. champion and 2018 Four Continents champion, CBS Colorado reported.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates dominate in ice dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates followed their rhythm dance triumph on Saturday with a winning free dance on Sunday.
The duo dominated the ice dance programs in what is their fourth consecutive Winter Olympic Games together.
"We definitely skated great and we're very happy, as you saw when we finished. I think we both felt the excitement of just getting these Olympics underway," said Bates.
The three-time world champions, Chock and Bates are the favorites to win individual Olympic gold later in the Winter Games.
The duo are the only holdovers from the gold medalists at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Team USA technically won a silver medal in the Olympic figure skating team event four years ago, but the team was awarded the gold two years later after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva received a four-year ban for taking a banned substance, disqualifying her and her team from the gold.