Photos by Crystal Kim
Team USA has a chance to do something it hasn’t done since 1984: bring 18 skaters — three entries in each of the four disciplines — to the 2026 Milano Cortina Games. What’s more, it is the only country with this opportunity.
U.S. ice dancers, women and men each had three entries compete at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. These disciplines qualified three Olympic entries outright, by virtue of the placements of the top two finishers adding up to 13 or less.
It’s a bit trickier, but still possible, for U.S. pairs to qualify three entries for Milano Cortino, where a total of 19 teams will compete. (There are four pairs in each warm-up group, so why the International Olympic Committee has deemed there will be 19, and not 20, pairs at the Olympics is something of a mystery.) The U.S. entries in Boston – Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea — placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Their 13 points earn Team USA an entry to an ISU Qualifying Competition in Beijing, China in late September, where the top three pairs’ finishers will gain Olympic berths for their countries.
Winning a spot in Beijing may be a tough ask. A Russian pair – perhaps Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, the 2021 world champions – plus a Chinese duo, maybe 2022 Olympic champion Sui Wenjing and new partner Li Ze’en, will very likely compete. There will also be a pair from Belarus, quite feasibly one that has trained in Russia. (The ISU has decided that skaters from Russia and Belarus can qualify for Milano Cortina as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN), and only from the final qualifying competition.)
Another catch: neither Efimova and Mitrofanov, the U.S. champions, or Kam and O’Shea, U.S. bronze medalists, can contend at the Beijing qualifier. It must be a pair that did not compete in Boston.
“For the (2018 Pyeongchang Games), I was the second team, when we only had one spot,” O’Shea said. “Whoever the U.S. decides gets to go fight for the spot, I am so excited for them, and I’m excited for the opportunity for the U.S. to have a full team across the board …. Teams having the chance to go to Worlds and Olympics, you get the experience sooner and you get the opportunity to grow and the country has a better pair program.”
“I hope it’s not just a pressure to get it, I hope it’s an extra opportunity to go out and enjoy and compete,” Kam said. “That’s what we all want, more opportunities to compete.”
Team USA did qualify three pairs for the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague and will certainly bring 18 skaters to that competition.
“(Gaining three world spots) is a massive portion of what we are here to accomplish,” O’Shea said. “They are not for us, they are for the country. Alisa and Misha, and Ellie and I, did our job as far as accomplishing that, earning three spots for next year’s worlds and the chance for three at the Olympics.”
“We were a team that got the chance to go to worlds our first season, because other teams had worked hard and gotten three spots, so I’m really happy we have a chance to keep U.S. pairs growing,” Kam said.
That sounds good to Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez, the 2024 U.S. bronze medalists who missed the 2024/2025 season due to Fernandez’ recuperation from knee surgery. The skaters, who train in Canton, Michigan under Jim Peterson and Amanda Evora, watched the competition at Boston’s TD Garden.
“We’re finally back on the ice, and we’re getting back to getting our programs organized for the season,” Fernandez said. “Things are coming along very quickly. And obviously the clock is ticking, but we’re so excited for the opportunity that was given to us last night, and we’re taking away every positive note that we can from it. (The U.S. pairs) getting three spots for worlds is amazing for us, and overall, (U.S. pairs) deserve it.”
“It’s really important to shine light on the fact that it is three spots at Worlds, and we lost the spot last year, but here we are getting it back,” Plazas said. “So it’s really special. It’s really good to not have that lost again.”
Of course, they would also love to be in the mix to be considered for the Olympic qualifier.
“All of (the U.S. pairs) have their own strengths and are competitive in our own way,” Plazas said. “It will be a good opportunity for whichever team that goes (to the Olympic qualifier) to fight for the spot. It will give them good footing.”
