U.S. rolls to World Team Trophy figure skating title, but will 2026 Olympic team event be closer?
The U.S. cruised past rival Japan to win figure skating's World Team Trophy, but the competition could be closer in the 2026 Olympic team event.
The Americans were led by their world champions from last month: Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu and ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates posted the top scores in both of their respective programs.
The U.S. ended up prevailing by 16 points over Japan in a competition that could have been much closer. A key was the overall performance of the two powers' singles skaters.
All of the U.S. singles skaters (Malinin, Liu, Jason Brown and Amber Glenn) finished higher than all of Japan's singles skaters in each program save the women's short, where Kaori Sakamoto and Mone Chiba finished between Liu and Glenn.
The pairs' and ice dance results went pretty much to form: Japan's world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won both pairs' programs, earning eight more points than Americans Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov.
Chock and Bates outscored Japan's dance couple by 10 points.
At World Team Trophy, each of the world's top six skating nations — the U.S., Japan, Italy, France, Canada and Georgia — fielded a team of two men's singles skaters, two women's singles skaters, one pairs' team and one ice dance couple.
All of the skaters performed two programs. Team standings were determined by point values corresponding to skaters' placements in each of the eight total programs.
A key difference between World Team Trophy and the Olympic team event: World Team Trophy includes two men's singles skaters and two women's singles skaters per nation in both programs. At the Olympics, it's one per nation in both programs.
Plus, the Olympic team event can include up to 10 nations (and included exactly 10 in 2014, 2018 and 2022). The field is cut to five for the free skates in each discipline, another difference from World Team Trophy.
Also at the Olympics, nations can substitute up to two of the four entries for the free skates, adding another layer of strategy.
In 2022, skaters from Russia originally had the highest total, but they dropped from first to third after Kamila Valiyeva's doping disqualification. The U.S. took gold and Japan silver.
Though skaters from Russia are eligible for the 2026 Olympics as neutral athletes (max. one entry per discipline), they are not eligible for the team event.
Philip Hersh,
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