Americans head into Olympic year with most decorated, and deepest, figure skating pool in decades

BOSTON (AP) — The United States is heading into the Olympic year with its most decorated — and deepest — pool of figure skaters in decades.

Perhaps ever.

After winning three titles at the world championships for the first time ever, the U.S. could be headed for a record medal haul at the Milano-Cortina Games. The Americans won two golds and a bronze at the 2022 Beijing Games and haven’t won more than three figure skating medals at any Olympics since taking four when they hosted in Squaw Valley in 1960.

“It’s happening, and it’s happening really quite a lot for the U.S.,” said Gracie Gold, a two-time national champion, who won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Olympics and is now a figure skating broadcaster. “I’m feeling super optimistic. I think everyone’s feeling optimistic. Who wouldn’t be?”

Ilia Malinin won his second straight men’s title to wrap up the world championships in Boston on Saturday night, with the home crowd rising to a standing ovation and waving U.S. flags as he finished his quad-filled routine.

A few hours earlier Madison Chock and Evan Bates took gold in ice dance. Alysa Liu won her first world women’s title on Friday night — the first for the U.S. in almost two decades.

Another reason for optimism: Isabeau Levito (fourth) and two-time defending national champion Amber Glenn (fifth) gave the Americans three of the top five women.

“Go Team USA. That’s all I can say,” Liu said. “I’m so proud of both Isabeau and Amber for putting up such great performances and such great fight. They were really fun to be with this week.”

And though the U.S. did not medal in pairs, with Japan claiming the top two spots, the performances of Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov along with Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea mean the Americans have a chance to send a third pair to the 2026 Games.

That would be a first since 1994.

Nathan Chen, who stepped away from competitive skating after winning gold in Beijing, mused that the U.S. might have swept the golds at worlds if Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim were still competing. His Olympic teammates won the pairs world title in 2022 before they, too, stepped away from the sport the following year.

“But it’s really cool, yeah. It’s great to see the U.S. in this position, especially being at home,” said Chen, who still takes part in shows but is busy these days applying to medical school. “There’s a lot of excitement, you know? There’s so much energy.”

The best U.S. figure skating haul in the Olympics has been the five medals won in 1956, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, when there were only three events: men, women and pairs. In Squaw Valley, the U.S. took two golds and two bronze.

Ice dance was added for the 1976 Innsbruck Games, and there has been a team competition since 2014, making a total of 15 available medals in Milano-Cortina. It also doesn’t hurt that the Russians and Belarusians were banned from the world championships due to the invasion of Ukraine; they will have a limited pathway to the Olympics.

While the Americans have been up and down in men, women and pairs competitions over the years, they have dominated ice dance since Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto came away with bronze in 2006.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White won gold at the 2011 worlds in Moscow and repeated two years later, and the U.S. has had at least one couple on the ice dance podium at worlds every year since 2015.

“We’ve had a U.S. team on the world podium for a pretty long while,” said Bates, who with Chock took gold in Boston. “And to have Ben and Charlie in the building and hear from Meryl over text, it means a lot, and I think the pipeline of U.S. ice dance teams is incredibly strong, seeing how the teams did this week.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics