by Alison Brown
Fall figure skating season is well under way and the stakes could not be higher. Skaters claimed the final quota spots for the 2026 Winter Olympics at the ISU Skate to Milano qualifier in September in Beijing, China. We have gotten our first looks at the programs we will be seeing on Olympic ice, so we know some of the winners. Who do we think will win the competition? Oh, we have no idea! Which means figure skating FANS are the winners!
Winner: Fans of the 90s
The ISU, in a deluded moment of hipness, chose the “music, dance styles and feeling of the 1990s” as the theme for the rhythm dance portion of ice dance. We have two Rickey Martin medleys coming out of Scandinavia (Turkkila & Versluis from Finland and Reitan & Majorov from Sweden). Repping for your country is a great idea for 2025 World bronze medalists Fear & Gibson from Great Britain with a Spice Girls medley and French couple Lopareva & Brissaud with songs from Daft Punk. Get ready for 90s classics I’m Too Sexy, The Macarena, Freedom, and Vogue. Czech team Taschlerova & Taschler keep it going with a free dance based on The Matrix movie.
ISU Living La Vida Loca in 2026.
And it isn’t just ice dance. Reigning American champion Amber Glenn is skating her short program to Madonna’s Like a Prayer.
Winner: American and Japanese Fans
Speaking of Amber Glenn, she is likely to claim one of the three spots open for American women at the Olympics. American men, ice dance, and pairs teams have all earned three quota spots. For the first time since Lillehammer 1994, the US earned the maximum quota spots in all four disciplines.
Figure skaters Mone Chiba, Amber Glenn and Kaori Sakamoto on the podium at the 2024 Grand Prix Finals. (c) International Skating Union (ISU)
Japan also earned the maximum three spots in men’s and women’s, and two spots for pairs. Even though the country has not qualified a spot for ice dance, Japan will be able to send an ice dance team to the Olympics if the country qualifies for the team event (very likely).
Winner: Fans of the Comeback
If you felt an earthquake last May, it was probably from ice dance fans shaking from the announcement by 2018 Olympic bronze medalists Maia & Alex Shibutani that they were returning to competitive skating. We haven’t seen them compete yet, nor are they on the schedule for the fall’s Grand Prix events. Not to worry; plenty of other skaters are ringing the comeback bell.
The Shib Sibs are back, baby!
Two-time world medalist Loena Hendrickx missed last season because of injury. She returned to competition at the Milano qualifier, placing third with all her trademark sexiness, sass, and sparkle on full display.
2022 Olympic pairs champions Wenjing Sui and Cong Han are set to return to competition later this month on home ice at the Cup of China. They have not competed since their magical Olympic long program.
Canadian favorite Keegan Messing is also back. The two-time Olympian, famous for his lumberjack shirt at Beijing 2022, competed for the first time in nearly three years at the 2025 Texan Trophy last week. He won.
2022 Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron has returned to competitive ice dance with a new partner. Laurence Fournier-Beaudry lost her partner, Nikolaj Sørensen, when he was suspended for at least six years by Canada’s Office of Sport Integrity Commissioner for sexual misconduct. Cizeron & Fournier-Beaudry will compete for France. (Mixed response from fans on this one.)
Winner: Fan Favorites Who Struggled at the 2025 World Champions
I loved the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. Not all the skaters would say the same. Thankfully, they got another chance to qualify for the Winter Olympics at the ISU Skate to Milano competition, and some fan favorites made the most of the opportunity.
Donovan Carrillo of Mexico finished 27th in the short program in Boston and did not qualify to move on to the free skate. At the Milano qualifier last month, Carrillo put down solid quad combination jumps and spirited choreography to earn a bronze medal, and a place at his second Olympic Games.
Anastasiia Gubanova won the 2023 European Championships but in Boston, she fell and slipped through her short program, leaving her in 28th place and out of the free skate. She finished second at the qualifier, behind by less than a point. She has announced that this will likely be her last competitive season, but by earning Georgia a quota spot for the Olympics, she has a good chance of retiring on Olympic ice.
Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia, competing at the 2025 European Championships, Photo credit: ©International Skating Union (ISU)
Lithuanian ice dancers Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevicius struggled in the rhythm dance at the World Championships and finished 21st, just one spot out of qualifying for the free dance. It was a different story at Skate to Milano, where Reed & Ambrulevicius won the competition, paving the way for Reed to return to Olympic ice for the first time since 2010.
Winner: Fans of Overwhelming Favorites AND Wide Open Competition
Whether you want to see an event with an overwhelming favorite or a competition where 10 athletes could win, Olympic figure skating is a must-watch.
Three-time and reigning World Champions Madison Chock & Evan Bates are heavy favorites in ice dance. “Quad King” Ilia Malinin won the 2025 World Championships by over 31 points and no other man has as many quad jumps in their repertoire as the American. But we all know that no competition is ever a lock, especially a competition on something as slippery as Olympic ice.
“Quad God” Ilia Malinin at the 2024 Grand Prix Final. Photo credit: ©International Skating Union (ISU)
Women’s, on the other hand, is a different story. At least 10 women have a realistic shot at the Olympic podium: Americans Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito; Kaori Sakamoto, Mone Chiba, Mao Shimado, and Wakaba Higuchi from Japan, Loena Hendricks from Belgium, and Korea’s Kim Chae-yeon. There are another half dozen, like Anastasiia Gubanova and Madeline Schizas of Canada, that could make a legitimate run with two clean programs. And that was before Russian skaters Adeliia Petrosian and Viktoriia Safonova qualified to compete in Milano as neutral athletes. Russian women (whether competing under their flag or as neutral athletes) have won the last three Olympic titles.
Who will medal in pairs? Who knows! The safest bet may be two-time world champions Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara from Japan but Italians Sarah Conti & Niccolo Macii have home ice advantage and Sui & Han are looking to defend their title. And don’t count out Canadians Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps who debuted an assisted backflip in their program last month!
Italian pairs skaters Sarah Conti & Niccolo Macii at the 2024 Grand Prix Final. Photo credit: ©International Skating Union (ISU)
What Are You Watching?
Have you been watching any of the early season figure skating competitions or do you wait until the Olympics to tune in? Do you have a favorite? A least favorite? (And why is your least favorite person in the figure skating world Eteri Tutberidze?). Be sure to let us know!