Ilia Malinin is a lock. Who else makes US Olympic figure skating team?

AI-assisted summary
• The U.S. Olympic figure skating team is selected based on a body of work, not just the U.S. championships.
• Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Isabeau Levito, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates are considered locks for the team.
• Several spots, particularly in the men’s and pairs disciplines, are still up for grabs
• U.S. Figure Skating is set to announce the roster on Sunday at 2 p.m.

ST. LOUIS — Now that the U.S. figure skating championships are complete, now comes the part everyone is anticipating: Who will make the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Figure skating doesn’t have your typical Olympic selection process where spots are determined at the U.S. championships or trials. Instead, the U.S. Figure Skating’s International Committee looks at an athlete’s body of work from the start of 2025 through the 2026 U.S. championships.

The U.S. will send 16 skaters – three men, three women, two pairs and three ice dance pairs – to the Milano Cortina Games and will announce the roster Sunday. But there is a pretty good sense of who is a roster certainty while others are on the bubble. We break down the candidates, from locks to longshots.

Watch our exclusive conversation with Ilia Malinin in the debut episode of ourMilan Magic Olympics podcast. Subscribe and listen:Apple Podcasts |Spotify |Amazon

Olympic locks

• Men: Ilia Malinin
• Women:Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Isabeau Levito
• Ice dance:Madison Chock and Evan Bates

The cream of the crop, all of these skaters have cemented their spots in Milano Cortina. Malinin and Glenn in singles, Chock and Bates in ice dance claimed national championships as the perfect send off to Italy. 

The “Quad God” Malinin won his title by a whopping 57 points and the young phenom is arguably the top skater in the world. Glenn and Liu have been at the top of standings at nearly every competition they’ve been in, mixing artistic beauty with fierceness. Levito guaranteed her spot with a third place finish in St. Louis. Chock and Bates have been a force in the ice dance and are on the hunt for their first medal in the discipline in what will be their fourth Olympic Games.

In additional to their individual medal potential, all of these skaters give the U.S. a great chance to win gold in the team event.

Likely in

• Pairs: Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea
• Ice dance: Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik

This group aren’t complete locks, but there’s a great chance they will be in.

Kam and O’Shea are the top eligible pair after finishing second in the U.S. championships, and landed on the podium in two Grand Prix events this season. Behind Chock and Bates for most of the season have been Zingas and Kolesnik, with two Grand Prix medals to go along with the second place finish at the U.S. championships.

There’s a chance

• Men: Jason Brown, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Maxim Naumov, Andrew Torgashev, Jacob Sanchez
• Pairs: Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman; Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy; Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe
• Ice dance: Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko

This is where it gets real interesting. The biggest question is who will take the final two spots alongside Malinin. It looked like Brown was a lock, but a disastrous free skate dropped Brown 12th place in the segement and eighth overall, jeopardizing his Olympic spot.

Then there’s Torgashev, Naumov and Hiwatashi. Torgashev may be the safest after he won back-to-back U.S. silver medals, bouncing back from a rough season. Naumov has been an incredible story coming back after losing both his parents in a January 2025 plane crash while Hiwatashi has been up-and-down. Sanchez, an 18-year-old who skated his way to fourth place in St. Louis, boosted his candidacy after a meteoric rise in the senior level. His performance may have accelerated his Olympic journey.

The second pairs spot is also up for grabs. McBeath and Parkman won silver this year after taking third in 2025, likely putting them ahead of Shin and Nagy after a tough free skate took them off the podium. However, they do have an ISU Challenger Series win. A dark horse is Chan and Howe, who recovered in their free skate for a second straight fourth place finish at the U.S. championships.

Carreira and Ponomarenko have the inside track for the third ice dance spots after another podium finish.

Longshots

• Men: Jimmy Ma
• Women: Bradie Tennell
• Pairs: Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov
• Ice dance: Caroline Green and Michael Parsons

Hope remains, but the odds are slim this group can make it. 

Ma is a a respected veteran skater that has hovered around the top five of U.S. championships for several years. Tennell proved she’s still an elite skater, but just the women’s field is stacked and there’s only three spots available.

Efimova and Mitrofanov would be shoe-ins with their two-straight U.S. titles, but Efimova hasn’t obtained her U.S. citizenship after getting green card approval in July 2024 and she can’t compete for the U.S. at the Olympics without a passport. Green and Parsons have been at the podium in nearly every event this season, but a fourth place finish at the 2026 U.S. championships may put them out of reach.