100 Days To Milan: Storylines I'm Watching
There's still a lot to be decided between now and when the skaters take the ice for the 2026 Olympics. Here's what I have my eyes on.
Today marks 100 days until the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. While my mind right now is firmly on Skate America in a couple weeks (and did you hear I’m going to be doing a Q&A with Layne Fargo, author of “The Favorites,” at the Lake Placid Public Library?!), I’m also thinking about plenty of storylines that will play out over the next 100 days.
This is not nearly a comprehensive list of every storyline in figure skating. If you want to be up to speed on everything (and why wouldn’t you be), I’d highly recommend checking out M Dabkowski’s “The Nice Capades” on Substack and backing Anything GOEs on Patreon. But these are the topics that are keeping me up at night (okay, who am I kidding… waking up to watch events halfway across the world is what’s keeping me up at night).
Who will be the third U.S. woman in Milan?
Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu were both in New York this week for Team USA’s pre-Olympics media summit and they seem like locks. Liu is the reigning World Champ and secured her first Grand Prix medal last week. Glenn is the reigning Grand Prix Final champ and defended her gold last week in China.
The third spot though? That’s not quite the lock it seemed a few months ago. Yes, Isabeau Levito is still in the pole position after finishing fourth at Worlds last season and opening this season with a gold at the Cranberry Cup. But her fourth place finish in her first Grand Prix event cracked the door open just a bit, and both Bradie Tennell and Sarah Everhardt seem poised to break through it. Everhardt took bronze at her challenger series event, and Tennell posted a massive score (though probably with some national event level boosting) at the Boston Open NQS event.
It’s probably not a coincidence then that all three of those women are in action this weekend at Skate Canada. The order in which they finish in Saskatoon could go a long way to determining the pecking order heading into Nationals in January, though Tennell and Everhardt both have one additional GP assignment beyond this week.
And who will be the third U.S. man in Milan?
The last men’s spot for Milan isn’t quite secured either. Ilia Malinin could not put on skates between now and February and he’d still be on the Olympic roster. Jason Brown, who competed at the 2014 Olympics when Malinin was just nine years old, seems poised to take the second spot.
There’s a large group of men who could land that third spot. Andrew Torgashev won silver at nationals in 2025, but had a disastrous performance in the free skate at Worlds. He was sixth at GP de France, and has his second GP assignment in Japan next month. Maxim Naumov certainly has the narrative going for him, but he was 9th in France and doesn’t have another GP assignment this season. Jacob Sanchez, last year’s Junior Grand Prix Final champion, was 7th in China at his senior level GP debut. But that put him three spots behind Tomoki Hiwatashi, who hasn’t finished in the top five at nationals since 2020, but was fourth in China, his best Grand Prix finish since finishing fourth at Skate America in 2021.
Hiwatashi will be back in action this weekend at Skate Canada, making him one of five U.S. men with two GP assignments this season, along with Malinin, Brown, Torgashev and Jimmy Ma, who opened the season by finishing seventh at the Cranberry Cup. Ma will be at NHK Trophy and Finlandia, while Liam Kapeikis, who finished one spot behind him in Boston, got the last host spot for Skate America.
It’s certainly a crowded field for that spot, and it’ll be worth tracking everyone’s performance over the next month or so.
Can we get some U.S. passports please?
In case you missed the news, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov aren’t just a pairs partnership anymore, they’re also married! And have been since February 2024! Why is this such a big deal (well, besides inspiring the new figure skating romance novel I started working on this week)? Because Efimova is still waiting on U.S. citizenship, without which she wouldn’t be eligible to represent the United States at the Olympics. With Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea still dealing with the aftermath of injuries that have forced them to withdraw from multiple events this season, Efimova and Mitrofanov are probably the best U.S. pairs team at the moment, and their presence in Milan would go a long way toward Team USA being able to defend its gold medal in the team event.
Efimova isn’t the only U.S. skater waiting on a citizenship decision. Christina Carreira has been in the United States for more than a decade and filed a petition for citizenship all the way back in 2018, but hasn’t been able to secure the passport that would allow her to compete for the U.S. in Milan. She and Anthony Ponomarenko have won silver at nationals each of the last two seasons and would seem to be in line for one of the ice dance spots in Milan, but Carreira needs to get that citizenship first.
Will we ever see the ShibSibs?
Speaking of ice dance, Maia and Alex Shibutani are back... maybe? We haven’t actually seen them skate yet this season, and what we have seen of them (aside from the endless promotional appearances) has been... troubling, to say the least.
Putting aside the controversy over that leaked video -- which is very hard to put aside once you’ve seen it -- the question remains over whether the ShibSibs are in form and can win a spot in Milan. They’ve been assigned to NHK Trophy and Finlandia, so we’ll theoretically get to see them skate then.
They have the credentials. They’re two-time U.S. national champs, won a pair of bronze medals in South Korea in 2018, and have won six Grand Prix gold medals in their career. But no one knows what they’ll look like after a seven-year layoff. Plus the controversy over the practice video, though it hasn’t truly broken into the mainstream, certainly takes some shine off their comeback story.
O Canada… why can’t you send more women to Milan?
Yes, I pay attention to other countries besides the United States. But given that I’m attending both Skate America and U.S. Nationals this season, it’s understandable that I’m a bit more locked in on this country’s skaters.
But I’m also locked in on our friends to the north, and not just Alexe Gilles’s sister (who will end up in Milan and probably on the podium there too).
Canada only has ONE spot for women’s singles in Milan. A few months ago, this didn’t seem like a huge issue. Madeline Schizas has won nationals three of the past four seasons, was 11th at worlds, and seemed like a lock to be headed to Milan. Then Gabrielle Daleman announced a comeback. Then Sara-Maude Dupuis landed a triple Axel. Suddenly the picture seems a lot more muddled.
Daleman, 27, hasn’t competed since 2022-23, and was battling injuries in that season, but represented Canada at the Olympics in both 2014 and 2018. She won bronze at Worlds in 2017. She was working with Amber Glenn this offseason. She’s the real deal. Dupuis, 20, doesn’t have quite the track record, but she did win silver at nationals last season. Also, most importantly, her short program this season is A TRIBUTE TO THE MOVIE “ICE PRINCESS.” (Yes, that had to be in all caps). She’s skating a Madonna “Ray of Light” program, choreographed by David Wilson. That would SLAY on the Olympic stage.
If it wasn’t for the fact it’s taking place at the exact same time as U.S. Nationals, I’d go to Canadian Nationals too this season, just to see this battle play out in person.
[Also, I selfishly want to see Dupius shine, because she was my skating body reference when I was writing my main character of Chloé LaFleur for my figure skating novel The Ice Between Us, which I hope to be able to publish someday!]
Can we send more than three Japanese women to Milan, please?
Speaking of battles, the quest to get the three spots in Milan for the Japanese women was always going to be a bloodbath. Kaori Sakamoto is the defending national champ, a three-time world champ, and won bronze in Beijing in 2022. Wakaba Higuchi finished just off the podium in 2022, is a four-time silver medalist at nationals, won Skate America last season, and won silver at Worlds in 2018. Mone Chiba won bronze at Worlds last season in addition to a pair of silver medals in Grand Prix events. Rino Matsuike won a pair of silvers at Grand Prix events last season as well.
That would’ve been difficult enough, then Ami Nakai went and threw a massive monkey wrench in the whole thing by going and winning the Grand Prix de France, beating Sakamoto by three points. This is Nakai’s first season competing internationally at the senior level, and making the jump directly to the Olympics would be massive.
In 2022, Japan took its top three finishers at nationals to the Olympics, and if they do so again, GP season and all the other lead up to it might not matter. But I’ll be curious to see what they do if there’s a surprise podium finisher at nationals, especially knowing that Sakamoto and Higuchi have announced this will be their final season. If one of them (or somehow both of them) were to miss the podium at nationals, would Japan really not send them to Milan?
[Another note related to my novel: Sakamoto just happens to be the skater who gets erased from history in the world of my novel, to make room for Chloe to have been the bronze medalist in Beijing in 2022. Sorry Kaori!]
Wishing good health for trio of European women
I’m gonna lead with the novel tie-in here. Just as I had a skating reference for when I was writing Chloe, I had one for Freja Lindholm as well. It was Kimmy Repond of Switzerland, who stands 5-foot-9 (Freja is 5-10). I adore watching Repond skate, but haven’t been able to do so this season because she withdrew from her Grand Prix assignments to recover from a foot injury she suffered in January. Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium also withdrew from her GP assignments due to injury recovery. Niina Petrõkina followed suit by withdrawing from the GP de France due to an inflamed Achilles.
Assuming all three are healthy in time to compete in their respective national championships, they should all be in Milan. Pinzarrone faces competition from Loena Hendrickx, but thanks to Hendrickx’s performance at the Skate to Milano event, Belgium has two spots. Switzerland has two spots as well, meaning Repond will almost certainly be there (Livia Kaiser was the only other Swiss woman with a GP assignment this season). Estonia only has the one spot, but Petrõkina is the only skater from the country with a GP assignment. She’s still in the lineup for Finlandia, and has said she hopes to participate in that event.
So jealous that you get to interview Layne Fargo live! And that you get to go to Skate America live! And that you get to see The Runthrough live! And that you have pink hair! What a life!
I felt a little indifferent about the Third Man for the US, but Tomoki is winning me over. I'll never forget when he won Junior Worlds and spit out his water in the Kiss and Cry when he realized he was in first place. Would feel like he's finally meeting expectations if he can pull it together.