2026 Olympic Figure Skating Team Event | Men’s Free Skate

Ilia Malinin sealed the victory for USA in the 2026 Olympic Figure Skating Team event on Sunday in Milan, Italy. Shun Sato gave the free skate of his career to help Team Japan secure the silver, while Matteo Rizzo delivered a solid performance to maintain Team Italy’s third place standing.

Only five of 10 qualifying countries advanced to the final round. The final standings were as follows: USA (69), Japan (68), Italy (60), Georgia (56), and Canada (54). The full standings are reflected at the bottom of the article.

Team USA

Ilia Malinin placed first with 200.03 with his intense and layered free skate entitled “A Voice.” The two-time World champion opened with a perfect quad flip, triple Axel and quad Lutz. He hung on to a triple toe before stepping out of a slightly underrotated quad Lutz, but came back with a quad toe-Euler-triple flip. His final jumping pass was a quad Salchow-triple Axel sequence. He earned a level four on two spins and high grades of execution for the first two jumps.

Malinin said the “attention” on him regarding the gold medal made him feel proud.

“I really went out there and just decided, okay, let the nerves down,” said the 21-year-old. “You just really need to get in that zone, you really just let things happen. And I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of my team, for all the work they’ve put in. We wouldn’t have gotten this gold medal without any of them.”

“It was really refreshing, and honestly, the moment is still not settling in yet,” he said when asked how it felt to be picked up by his teammates. “I still haven’t really figured out that I’m wearing in a gold medal from the Olympics. It’s honestly just such an unreal feeling, but overall, I’m just so excited. This brings me so much joy and energy, and, of course, the confidence and the motivation leading up to my individual event as well.”

Team Japan

Shun Sato gave everything he had in his flawless free skate to The Firebird, earning a new personal best score of 194.86. The two-time Four Continents medalist landed three clean quad jumps, including a quad Lutz, as well as six solid triple jumps. All elements garnered positive GOEs, particularly on the quad jumps and a triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow.

Sato admitted he felt a lot of pressure when skating after Malinin.

“But even so, I think I was able to get a good result, or rather, deliver a performance without any mistakes,” he pointed out. “Also, thanks to the support and encouragement from everyone on the team. I’m glad I was able to turn that support into strength.”

The skater was clearly emotional in the “Kiss and Cry.”

“Right after I finished skating, I was genuinely happy because I felt I had truly lived up to the team’s support,” he said. “But once the scores were announced, I felt quite sad that we couldn’t win. I felt happy, but also disappointed.”

When asked how he felt coming close to Malinin’s score, he said: “Well, Ilia wasn’t competing at his best this time. So, I feel like I am still really not close. Still, being able to get even a closer to him in terms of score makes me really happy. He’s one of the skaters I look up to, so at this Olympics I want to learn as much as I can from him, take that experience home, and get even a little closer to his level.”

Team Italy

Matteo Rizzo gave a powerful free skate to music from Interstellar, placing third with a new season’s best of 179.62. The four-time European medalist hung on to his opening quad toe and sailed through the rest of his program, landing eight clean triple jumps in all. His three spins and the footwork received a level three, and he earned positive GOEs throughout.

“I had the practice of my life too,” said the 27-year-old. “I have my [coaching and support] team supporting me. And here, I had also the team, the guys supporting me. So it was great! I think I couldn’t skate better than this. I could not enjoy it more. I enjoyed every second on the ice.”

Team Canada

Stephen Gogolev gave a good free skate to “Piano Concerto No. 2” by Sergei Rachmaninov. He stepped out of a quad toe but landed a quad Salchow and quad Salchow-double toe. He also produced six clean triple jumps while displaying two level four spins and footwork. The national champ earned a new personal best of 171.93, placing fourth.

“I think overall, it was pretty good,” said the 21-year-old. “I was quite a bit nervous going into this because obviously, skating after Matteo, I don’t know if it was a very easy task. Especially since he was skating in front of Italian crowd, and the crowd was very, very loud. Overall, I think I was able to perform as best as I could, and I’m happy that I was able to fight through it.”

“It didn’t feel much different from any other competition,” he said of the pressure. “I tried to focus on myself at being the first one. I think I felt more pressure yesterday to go ahead for the final and to go ahead for the free skate for the team event.”

When asked what he is taking from the team event to the individual event, he said: “I think you have mostly everything the same. My head space was good; my preparation was good. I think it’s more about just experiencing this moment in the team event and do your best at the individual event.”

Team Georgia

Nika Egadze left some points on the table in the free skate after, placing fifth with a score of 154.79. The 2026 European Champion stepped out of opening Lutz, which was doubled, but recovered to land a solid quad toe. He then slightly underrotated the back end of a quad Salchow-triple toe and stepped out of a triple Axel, but managed four clean triple jumps and level-four footwork.

“I feel okay,” he said after the skate. “Of course, I wanted to skate clean. I wanted to skate better than this, but this is how it was today. I think I don’t know, I don’t need to give up, because in the individual event I want to do much better. I have to show better skating, better quality of everything.”

The individual Olympic Figure Skating events will begin tomorrow with the Rhythm Dance.

Related info:

• Official Results
• Olympic Qualification System for Figure Skating
• Competition Threads
• Replay Lounge
• More Olympic Figure Skating news

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