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Though the opening ceremonies aren’t for a few more hours, figure skating at the Winter Olympics kicks off early on Feb. 6 with the first three rounds of the team event.
Team USA is one of 10 teams qualified for the event, which combines all four disciplines of figure skating in eight rounds of competition. The United States is also entering as the defending gold medal champions.
The competition gets started today with the ice dancing rhythm dance, followed by pairs short program and women’s singles short program.
OLYMPICS 2026 FIGURE SKATING TEAM EVENT
- What: Rhythm dance, pairs short program, women’s short program
- When: Feb. 6, 3:55 a.m.
- Where: Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan, Italy)
- Channel: USA Network
- Streaming: DIRECTV (try it free)
The reigning ice dance world champions (and a key piece of Team USA’s 2022 Olympic team) Madison Chock and Evan Bates will represent Team USA in the rhythm dance and national champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea will skate in the pairs short program.
Alysa Liu will make her Olympic return in the women’s short program this morning as well. Liu, the reigning world champion, retired from professional figure skating following the 2022 Olympics and made a comeback in 2024.
Tomorrow, the team event continues with the conclusion of round 1 with the men’s singles short program and the first skate of the second round, the free dance.
Figure skating team event day 1 TV schedule
- Team Event: Ice Dancing Rhythm Dance – Feb. 6, 3:55 AM
- Team Event: Pairs Short Program – Feb. 6, 5:35 AM
- Team Event: Women’s Short Program – Feb. 6, 7:35 AM
How to watch the Olympic figure skating team event for free
If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream the Olympics for free.
DIRECTV is our favorite service for watching TV live for free — it has a five-day free trial and there are a ton of options for plans that include USA Network (and every other channel you’ll need for the Olympics), starting at $69.99/month.
You can also catch every minute of the Olympics with a subscription to Peacock, which starts at $10.99/month.
Figure skating team event entries
Ice dancing rhythm dance
- Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu (China)
- Sofiia Dovhal and Wiktor Kulesza (Poland)
- Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita (Japan)
- Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron (France)
- Hannah Lim and Ye Quan (Korea)
- Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin (Georgia)
- Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier (Canada)
- Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (Italy)
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates (United States of America)
- Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (Great Britain)
Pairs short program
- Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (China)
- Camille Kovalev and Pavel Kovalev (France)
- Ioulia Chtchetnina and Michal Wozniak (Poland)
- Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (Canada)
- Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby (Great Britain)
- Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (United States of America)
- Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (Italy)
- Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia)
- Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan)
Women’s short program
- Ruiyang Zhang (China)
- Kristen Spours (Canada)
- Ekaterina Kurakova (Poland)
- Jia Shin (Korea)
- Lorine Schlid (France)
- Madeline Schizas (Canada)
- Lara Naki Gutmann (Italy)
- Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia)
- Alysa Liu (United States of America)
- Kaori Sakamoto (Japan)
How does the figure skating team event at the Winter Olympics work?
Introduced in 2014, the team event is the newest figure skating event at the Olympics. Similar to the gymnastics team event held in the Summer Olympics, this team event combines all four of figure skating’s disciplines (men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, ice dance) into a single medal event with eight components.
This year, ten countries qualified for the team event, including both the gold and silver medalists (USA and Japan) from the 2022 edition.
The team event is judged on placements rather than how many points an individual or pair routine gets; the skater or pair with the highest score receives 10 points toward the country’s total, second gets nine points, and so on. After the first round of competition wraps up (following rhythm dance, and short programs for pairs, men and women), the five teams with the lowest point totals are eliminated.
The second round features the top five teams’ free dance and free skate programs for pairs, men and women. The judging and point assignments are consistent with the first round.
At the end of the second round, medals are awarded based on final placements.
When do the Winter Olympics end?
The 2026 Winter Olympics end with the closing ceremony on Feb. 22 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
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