Alysa Liu, Ellie Kam, and Madison Chock help Team USA soar to figure skating gold
Asian American girl power was on full display at Milano Cortina 2026 this weekend during the figure skating team event
Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam scored a personal best during the pairs free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Team USA
Words by Helen Li
Tied neck and neck with Team Japan for the 2026 Winter Olympics figure skating team gold medal, Team USA needed something magical on the ice on Sunday, the final day of competition.
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the pairs figure skating team, delivered just that.
In a personal best score of 135.36, the duo twisted in the air and glided across the ice to help Team USA score crucial points in the team competition. In the end, it all came down to the final skate to determine the podium top two. With a quadruple jump-filled free skate by men’s figure skater Ilia Malinin, Team USA clinched the gold with a one-point advantage over Team Japan. The team was composed of Kam, O’Shea, and Malinin; women’s singles skaters Alysa Liu and Amber Glenn; and ice dance couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The team event, first added in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games in Russia, is a multi-day competition whereby the podium is determined by points won in each discipline of women’s, men’s, pairs, and ice dance. Placing higher gets the team more points. Countries strategize on who is the strongest representative in each competition to help maximize their rankings, with only two swaps total allowed. This is the second team event gold for the U.S., following Beijing 2022 (after Russia’s victory was ruled invalid due to a positive doping result).
The journey to Milan was not easy. Kam, 21, who is half-Japanese, and part Hawaiian and Chinese, just recovered from a concussion in her offseason last year. After falling and hitting her head on the ice during training, she was sidelined from competing for months. It was not until October that she and her partner O’Shea, who also underwent extensive surgery for his broken foot, started competing again.
“In order to get to the high point of success, you have to go through the nitty-gritty, the dirty… It just makes me even more proud of wearing this medal around our neck, because I know what type of work it has taken us to get here,” Kam told People Magazine after the competition.
Reigning 2025 World Champion and Oakland-native Alysa Liu placed second behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto in the women’s short program portion of the team competition. Although this is not her first Olympics, Liu, 20, told the NBC TODAY show that participating in the team event and getting the gold medal win was ”extremely fun.” Skating to Icelandic-Chinese Jazz singer Laufey’s “Promise,” she solidified her post-retirement comeback to Olympic ice.
“It’s been such a treat. After having a COVID-Olympics, this one definitely feels really different,” she said. She had helped Team USA medal at the World Team Trophy event—usually known as a more fun, spirited culmination at the end of a figure skating season—back in April last year. In a sport where athletes usually compete as individuals, the opportunity to cheer and root for each other was special.“I want to be in a team event every time now.”
Madison Chock, now at her fourth Olympics, and her partner delivered two routines in the rhythm and free dance portions of the team event. This is especially difficult, since their regular competition for ice dance would start two days after they wrapped the team event. Chock and her skating and real-life partner Bates skipped the Milan Opening Ceremony event to rest beforehand.
“We came into the event knowing that that was a possibility, so we were mentally and physically prepared,” Chock told Golden Skate in the media zone after their free dance routine.
Chock competes on Feb. 9 and 11 in the rhythm and free dance, aiming to add to her collection of team medals with an “individual” event podium finish. Kam will compete next week on Feb. 16 in the pairs skating qualifiers, while Liu will not compete until Feb. 18.
Published on February 11, 2026
Words by Helen Li
Helen Li is a journalist and fact-checker based in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Rest of World, Semafor, and Business Insider. In her free time, she appreciates a good hike, watches NCAA gymnastics, and occasionally dives into Reddit rabbit holes where she finds fascinating stories. She also just completed her first women's rugby 15s season. You can reach her on Signal @hliwrites.99.