The 2026 Prevagen U.S. Championships will take place Jan. 4-11, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. U.S. champions will be crowned in the women’s, men’s, pairs and ice dance disciplines at the senior and junior levels, as well as novice pairs and ice dance. The U.S. Championships also will serve as the final qualifying event prior to the selection of the U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team that will represent Team USA at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina.
St. Louis last hosted the U.S. Championships in 2006. The senior events will take place at the Enterprise Center, while the junior and novice events will take place at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, MO.
Men
Two-time World champion Ilia Malinin is looking to take home his fourth U.S. title and punch his ticket to his first Olympic Games, where he is considered the favorite to win the gold medal. The “Quad God” made history in December by becoming the first skater to land seven quadruple jumps in one program.
During his media call ahead of Nationals, Malinin mentioned he just switched into new skates.
“I’m still getting used to them, but overall, I think Nationals is going to be a fun experience, especially with the Olympics coming up in a few months,” he said.
While Malinin is a shoo-in for an Olympic spot, Team USA has two additional spots for men for the Olympic team. It’s expected that two-time Olympian Jason Brown will claim one of those spots. Brown is a nine-time U.S. medalist and a seven-time World competitor. He finished 6th at the 2022 Olympics. After two fifth-place finishes at the World Championships, Brown was eighth at the event last season. Brown missed the U.S. Championships last January citing ongoing issues with his equipment. At 31-years-old, he is the oldest competitor in the men’s event.
The third spot is wide open. While U.S. Figure Skating does look at a skater’s body of work, it may come down to placements at the U.S. Championships in St. Louis as there isn’t a clear favorite among the field of skaters vying for that spot.
Andrew Torgashev, who won the silver medal at the 2025 U.S. Championships, opened his Olympic season by winning the silver medal at Nebelhorn Trophy. After winning his first Grand Prix medal last season, Torgashev finished sixth at Grand Prix de France and ninth at Skate Canada International this season.
There was some uncertainty if three-time U.S. pewter medalist Maxim Naumov would continue with his competitive career after the deaths of his parents/coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were killed in the crash of Flight 5342 last January. Naumov is now working with Vladimir Petrenko. He finished ninth at Lombardia Trophy and ninth at Grand Prix de France. In November, he won gold at Ice Challenge and finished fourth at Tallinn Trophy. Naumov’s friend, Jimmy Ma, is also in the mix for an Olympic spot. This is the 30-year-old’s 12th U.S. Championships. Ma was fifth at the U.S. Championships last January. This season, he was seventh at Cranberry Cup, tenth at Kinoshita Group Cup, tenth at NHK Trophy and 11th at Finlandia Trophy.
Tomoki Hiwatashi started off his 2025-2026 season with a ninth place finish at Cranberry Cup before winning the bronze medal at Kinoshita Group Cup and the Trialeti Trophy. In October, he finished just off the podium at Cup of China. He had a ninth place finish at Skate Canada International. The 25-year-old hasn’t been on the podium at Nationals since 2020.
Jacob Sanchez is in his first full season as a senior-level skater. The 2024 Junior Grand Prix Final Champion was fifth at Cranberry Cup, sixth at Nepela Memorial and seventh at Cup of China, Recently, he won silver at Ice Challenge and finished fifth at Golden Spin of Zagreb. Sanchez was seventh in his senior Nationals debut last season.
There are two male skaters making their senior Nationals debut this season. Lorenzo Elano is the 2025 U.S. Junior Champion. He won Tayside Trophy and silver at Tallinn Trophy, both on the junior level. Twenty-two year old Ken Mikawa will make his senior National debut, replacing Camden Pulkinen after he withdrew due to injury.
Women
Last season, three U.S. women finished in the top five at the World Championships — Alysa Liu claimed the gold medal, Isabeau Levito finished fourth and Amber Glenn was fifth. It seems very likely that Liu, Levito and Glenn will make up the women’s team for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.
Liu recently won the Grand Prix Final title, her first ever medal at the Grand Prix Final. She also won gold at Skate America and silver at Cup of China. Last season, in her return to competition after retiring following the 2022 Olympics, Liu took home the silver medal before winning the world title in March. Liu finished sixth at the 2022 Olympics.
Glenn, the 2024 Grand Prix Final champion, finished just off the podium at this year’s Final. She won gold at Cup of China and the silver medal at Finlandia Trophy. Glenn is the two-time U.S. Champion and is looking to make her first Olympic team.
“I want to go out and have two performances that I enjoy and I am proud of,” Glenn said during his pre-Nationals media call. “If I do my job, I will get to go to Milan, and that will be more than I ever dreamed.”
Levito was named as the first alternate for the Grand Prix Final after finishing fourth at Grand Prix de France and second at Skate Canada International. Also this season, Levito won Cranberry Cup and had a fourth place finish at Nebelhorn Trophy. Levito was injured at the 2025 U.S. Championships. She won the title in 2023. Levito is also looking to make her first Olympic team.
While the odds favor Liu, Levito and Glenn, two-time U.S. Champion and 2025 Four Continents silver medalist Bradie Tennell could challenge any one of those three for an Olympic spot. This season, Tennell opened her season with a fifth-place finish at Kinoshita Group Cup. She finished fourth overall at Skate Canada International and Finlandia Trophy. She was third alternate for the Grand Prix Final. While the Final was happening in Nagoya, Japan, Tennell won gold at the Golden Spin of Zagreb, the final Challenger series event of the season. Tennell was fourth at the 2025 U.S. Championships. This is her ninth U.S. Championships. If Tennell is named to the Olympic team, this would be her second Olympic games. She won the bronze medal in the team event and finished ninth in the individual event at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Another challenger for an Olympic spot could be 2025 U.S. bronze medalist and 2025 Four Continents bronze medalist Sarah Everhardt. This season, Everhardt won bronze at Lombardia Trophy, and finished seventh at Skate Canada International and fifth at NHK Trophy.
In what is her final season as a singles skater before switching to pair skating, Starr Andrews is looking to extend her season beyond the U.S. Championships. In November, Andrews skated two clean programs, earning a personal best free skate and total score to place fifth at Skate America.
2025 World Junior Bronze medalist Elyce Lin-Gracey finished eighth at the 2025 U.S. Championships. She recently finished fifth at Golden Spin of Zagreb.
There are two skaters making their senior Nationals debut and two making their Nationals debut. Emilia Nemirovsky and Sophie Joline von Felten are both making their senior Nationals debut. Nemirovsky is the two-time U.S junior pewter medalist and does have a triple Axel. von Felten is the 2025 U.S. junior champion. She became just the second-ever U.S. woman to land a quad at the U.S. Championships at the junior level and the third-ever U.S. woman to land a quad jump. She also became the second U.S. woman to land two triple Axels in one program at the U.S. Championships in 2025. She won two bronze medals on the Junior Grand Prix this season.
Erica Machida and Anabel Wallace are both making their Nationals debut at any level.
Pairs
There are two spots for the Olympic team for pairs.
The reigning U.S. Champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov are looking to defend their title in St. Louis and be named to the U.S. Olympic team. In a post by the Skating Club of Boston, where the team trains, it stated that Efimova and Mitrofanov were married in 2024 and that Efimova obtained her green card. She has been working to receive a waiver of the full-three year waiting period for a U.S. passport as to be eligible for the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Olympic Team. So it remains to be seen if the two will be eligible for the Olympics.
The 2024 U.S. Champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea could be one of the teams competing in Milano-Cortina. Kam and O’Shea finished third at both of their Grand Prix events this season. Last season, they finished seventh at the World Championships before O’Shea spent three months off the ice recovering from foot surgery.
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, who were fourth at the 2025 U.S. Championships, are also in the mix for one of the Olympic spots. This season, Chan and Howe won bronze at Trialeti Trophy and finished fourth at John Nicks Pairs Challenge. On the Grand Prix circuit, they were fourth at Skate America and finished seventh at NHK Trophy.
2025 U.S. silver medalists Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman are not eligible for the Olympics as Parkman has not obtained U.S. citizenship. Still, the team is looking to possibly represent the U.S. at Four Continents and even Worlds. This season, they were fourth at Grand Prix de France and seventh at Cup of China. They won bronze medals at John Nicks Pairs Challenge and Warsaw Cup.
Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy will compete in their second U.S. Championships as a team. They finished fifth in their nationals debut last season. Recently, they won Golden Spin of Zagreb and took the silver medal at Ice Challenge. They were fifth at Grand Prix de France and sixth at the Skate to Milano Olympic Qualifying event.
After missing all of the 2024-2025 season, 2024 U.S. bronze medalists Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez have returned to competitive ice. They took the silver medal at Golden Spin of Zagreb, finishing behind Shin and Nagy. They were also fourth at Tayside Trophy and Kinoshita Group Cup, and seventh at Skate America.
One team will be making their nationals debut as a new team, and another team will be making their senior nationals debut. Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard are a new team. In their debut, they won gold at IceChallenge and the bronze medal at Tayside Trophy. They also finished seventh at Golden Spin of Zagreb and sixth at John Nicks Pairs Challenge. 2024 U.S. junior champions and 2024 World junior champions Olivia Flores and Luke Wang will make their senior Nationals debut.
Ice Dance
Six-time U.S. Champions and three-time World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates have all but locked their spot for the 2026 Olympic team. This will be Chock’s fourth Olympic games and Bates’ fifth Olympic games.
For a preview of the dance event, visit Ice-Dance.com.
