2026 Winter Olympics

[rlayt]

Too bad. Brown is a beautiful skater but figure skating has changed a lot and beautiful isn’t enough.

 

[RichardL]

Too bad. Brown is a beautiful skater but figure skating has changed a lot and beautiful isn’t enough.

He certainly made it easy for them with that free skate, though. I'm honestly surprised they are sending him to Worlds and not giving someone else some experience.

 

[makam]

I think his season record is superior. Aren't all the guys not named Ilia (and Jason a decent percentage of the time) pretty known for choking internationally?

 

[LMB]

I am not an expert at all, but rankings at Worlds determines how many spots you have at the following year's Worlds/Olympics. The past three years, Ilia and Jason have scored well enough to earn three spots for men for the US. Only the top two count, which is good because the third US man has placed poorly each year. They could be sending Jason to 2026 Worlds because he has been solid in the past and can help earn three spots for the 2027 Worlds.

2023
3 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
21 Andrew Torgashev

2024
1 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
20 Camden Pulkinen

2025
1 Ilia Malinin
8 Jason Brown
22 Andrew Torgashev

 

[RichardL]

I am not an expert at all, but rankings at Worlds determines how many spots you have at the following year's Worlds/Olympics. The past three years, Ilia and Jason have scored well enough to earn three spots for men for the US. Only the top two count, which is good because the third US man has placed poorly each year. They could be sending Jason to 2026 Worlds because he has been solid in the past and can help earn three spots for the 2027 Worlds.

2023
3 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
21 Andrew Torgashev

2024
1 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
20 Camden Pulkinen

2025
1 Ilia Malinin
8 Jason Brown
22 Andrew Torgashev

This makes perfect sense to me, thank you!

 

[rlayt]

Yes. Thanks for that thoughtful analysis.

 

[Rich]

I am not an expert at all, but rankings at Worlds determines how many spots you have at the following year's Worlds/Olympics. The past three years, Ilia and Jason have scored well enough to earn three spots for men for the US. Only the top two count, which is good because the third US man has placed poorly each year. They could be sending Jason to 2026 Worlds because he has been solid in the past and can help earn three spots for the 2027 Worlds.

2023
3 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
21 Andrew Torgashev

2024
1 Ilia Malinin
5 Jason Brown
20 Camden Pulkinen

2025
1 Ilia Malinin
8 Jason Brown
22 Andrew Torgashev

I am hoping that Torgashev has improved enough this year to do better than Jason.

 

[KristyJ]

I am hoping that Torgashev has improved enough this year to do better than Jason.

If he skates like he did at nationals, he will. But that is always the question, isn't it?

 

[RedBirdie]

are 2027 worlds sports determined by Olympic or worlds placements this year?

 

[KristyJ]

are 2027 worlds sports determined by Olympic or worlds placements this year?

Worlds-- as worlds has the slightly bigger field

 

[irichluck21]

I am not an expert at all, but rankings at Worlds determines how many spots you have at the following year's Worlds/Olympics.

If you have qualified 3 athletes/pairs competing at Worlds, in order to qualify 3 to the following Worlds, the top two skaters placements need to be equal to or less than a total of 13 points. If you have 2 skaters or just 1 skaters, you are not able to qualify 3 skaters/pairs

If you have 3 athletes/pairs or 2 athletes/pairs competing you can qualify 2 athletes or pairs if the top two have a total ranking of 28 points or less. If the two athletes/pairs have a total ranking of 13 points of less, they can qualify an additional entrant into September Qualifying competition.

If you have 1 athlete/pair competing in order to qualify1 athlete/pair to the next Worlds/Olympics you need to be ranked high enough within the single entrance by NOC to qualify. If you finish in the top 10 you can qualify an additional entry to the September Qualifying Meet.

The USA earned 3 entries for women, men, and ice dance. They earned 2 pairs for pairs.
At the 2025 Worlds:
Men:
Malinin placed 1st and Brown placed 8th= 9 points- therefore less than 13 so 3 athletes qualified to 2026 Olympics and Worlds.

Women:
Liu placed 1st and Levito placed 4th= 5 points- therefore less than 13 so 3 athletes qualified to 2026 Olympics and Worlds.

Ice Dance:
Chock/Bates placed 1st and Carreira/Ponomarenko placed 5th= 6 points-therefore less than 13 so 3 athletes qualified to 2026 Olympics and Worlds.

Pairs:
Efimova/Mitrofanov were 6th and Kam/O'Shea were 7th= 13 points- therefore less than 28 points and so two pairs qualified.
The additional entrant for Skate to Milano for the US was Shin/Nagy- they placed 6th and did not qualify a 3rd pairs team to Worlds/Olympics.

 

[JDB]

Recent geopolitical events have caused me to do something I never expected I'd have to: cheer for Canadians at a Winter Olympics.

 

[Sasha]

Recent geopolitical events have caused me to do something I never expected I'd have to: cheer for Canadians at a Winter Olympics.

Where are you from?

 

[RedBirdie]

I'll cheer for Canada in everything but hockey. Go Sweden/Finland/Czechia.

 

[MaryClare]

I'll cheer for Canada in everything but hockey. Go Sweden/Finland/Czechia.

Ugh no. I don’t think I want anyone to actually win the hockey. Maybe Switzerland

 

[RedBirdie]

Mary Clare, Little Birdie is absolutely enraged that Russia can't send a hockey team and he is being denied the opportunity to see Alex Ovechkin play in the Olympics. Like, this is some sort of personal afront to him.

Hilariously, Little Birdie thinks we're all lying when we say Canada is the favorite. His entire frame of reference for international hockey is world championships and world juniors from the past couple of years. Canada hasn't exactly been lighting it up at either event of late. "Canada?! CANADA?! Canada is never going to get past Czechia!" I suspect he's in for a rude awakening.

 

[JDB]

Where are you from?

I'm from the USA.

I don’t think I want anyone to actually win the hockey.

MaryClare cheering on the hockey teams in Milan:

 

[KristyJ]

Pairs:
Efimova/Mitrofanov were 6th and Kam/O'Shea were 7th= 13 points- therefore less than 28 points and so two pairs qualified.
The additional entrant for Skate to Milano for the US was Shin/Nagy- they placed 6th and did not qualify a 3rd pairs team to Worlds/Olympics.

A note on this-- The US actually qualified three pairs to worlds with that total of 13 points, but there were fewer spots available for the Olympics, and Shin/Nagy didn't place highly enough at the qualifying event to get a third Olympic spot (possibly why the US seems to have low balled or knit picked them at nationals?)
The below has the assignments for upcoming competitions, and you can see the three assigned worlds. Efimova and Mitrofanov and McBeath and Parkman can skate at worlds because they don't have the citizenship requirements that the Olympics have. Interesting to note that Chan/Howe were moved below Shin/Nagy on the alternates list--

U.S. Figure Skating Announces World Championships, World Junior Championships and Four Continents Teams - U.S. Figure Skating

U.S. Figure Skating today announced its selections for the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2026, the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2026 and

usfigureskating.org