By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
Photos by Giada Arioldi
MILAN, ITALY — The United States took home its second consecutive Olympic team event gold medal in what was a tight competition.
Heading into the final segment of the team event, which was the men’s free skate, only one point separated Team USA and Team Japan.
Two-time World champion Ilia Malinin knew that he needed to deliver a strong skate for Team USA to win the gold medal. The day prior Malinin lost the short program to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. In the free skate, though not as technically as strong of a program as what Malinin has produced earlier this season, Malinin delivered four quadruple jumps, but stumbled on the second quadruple Lutz. He earned 200.03 points and ended up winning the segment to secure ten points for Team USA to win the gold medal by one point (69 total points) ahead of Team Japan.
“Honestly I felt really proud of that attention, that pressure, because seeing that it was going to be a tie right now, and that deciding factor was going to be my skate or not, I really went out there,” Malinin said. “I just decided ‘OK, let the nerves down, you just really need to get into that zone and just let things happen.’ I’m proud of myself and proud of my team for all the work they’ve put into this, and without each other, we wouldn’t have gotten this gold medal.”
Earlier that evening, two-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn had some mistakes in the first half of her program to finish third in the women’s free skate and secure eight points for Team USA.
“My team had done so well, and I did lackluster,” a disappointed Glenn said after her skate. “I scored below my median and made too many mistakes.”
“I was ecstatic, of course, because I felt guilty,” Glenn said of winning gold. “I felt like I left so much pressure on him (Ilia) and he’s already under so much pressure being, you know, hailed as the “Quad God” and all that. I couldn’t imagine what that’s like, and he stepped up, like we all knew he would. But I was just really grateful.”
In the pairs’ free skate, which kicked off the final day of the team event, 2024 U.S. Champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea earned a personal best free skate score to finish fourth in the segment. They earned seven points for Team USA.
“It was an amazing event,” team captain Danny O’Shea commented. “I think that there was so much good skating over the past few days. I was more nervous watching Ilia than I was skating myself. I was so proud of him, so proud of everybody on our team. It really took every single point for us to do it today.”
“I can’t even describe it to be honest with you,” O’Shea on being a gold medalist after competing as a pairs skater since 2012. “I looked at Ellie and I just said, ‘thank you’ and she started bailing. It is crazy to have fought so long and so hard and I thought many times of just stopping and moving on with life, and even rationalized, like, you know, I accepted that I’ve done enough. I’ve had a great career. I’ve accomplished a lot of things, this one other achievement doesn’t mean it all, and then to be strong enough to fight through it and then keep going after and just be a part of this team that achieved this is indescribable.”
Three-time World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates won both the free dance and rhythm dance segments. This is their second Olympic team gold medal as they won gold with Team USA at the Beijing Olympics in 2022. Chock and Bates will compete their rhythm dance in the individual event Monday. World Champion Alysa Liu competed in women’s short program for the team.
Closing out the team event was Japan’s Shun Sato, who delivered a personal best free skate with a score of 194.86 to earn nine points for Team Japan and secure the silver medal. Japan finished with 68 points.
“First of all, right after I finished skating, I was genuinely happy because I felt I had truly lived up to the team’s support,” Sato shared. “But once the scores were announced, I felt quite sad that we couldn’t win. I felt happy, but also disappointed.”
This is Japan’s second consecutive Olympic team silver medal. They took the silver medal in the team event in 2022.
“This time we were aiming for gold from the first day on,” team captain Masaya Morita said. “But it is not only the result that counts. When we look at the programs and performances, they were full of excellent moments. Not only gold or silver is valuable. It is especially important for us that we want to prove ourselves as a team for the next opportunity in four years. I hope we can keep this positive spirit in the future.”
In the women’s free skate, 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto hit five clean triples to win the free skate and put Team Japan into the lead heading into the men’s free skate. Two-time World Champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara earned a personal best score to win the pairs’ free skate and give Team Japan ten points.
Yuma Kagiyama competed in the men’s short program, where he beat Malinin to earn ten points for Japan. Ice dancers Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita competed in both the rhythm dance and free dance for the team. For Sakamoto, Kagiyama, Miura and Kihara, this silver marks their second Olympic team silver medal as they were a part of the team that won the medal four years ago in Beijing.
It was a historic moment for the host country of Italy as the host country took home the bronze medal, marking only the third time that Italy has won a medal in figure skating at the Olympics. Carolina Kostner won a bronze medal in 2014, and Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio secured a bronze medal in ice dance in 2002.
Italy chose to have Matteo Rizzo compete in the free skate, switching out Daniel Grassl, who competed in the short program. Rizzo delivered a strong free skate complete with a quadruple toe jump and eight triple jumps to earn a season’s best score of 179.62. He finished third in the segment to give Italy eight points, which secured the bronze medal for Team Italy.
“I think I couldn’t skate better than this, I could not enjoy it more,” Rizzo said. “I enjoyed every second on the ice.”
Prior to Rizzo’s skate, Lara Naki Gutmann skated her free skate, placing fourth in the segment to earn seven points for Team Italy.
“I have no words. I don’t know. I can’t believe it. We were watching Matteo and we all started crying and screaming. It’s been crazy. I mean today wasn’t my best performance, but I think it was pretty good overall. But we really needed a clean performance from Matteo, and he did something incredible.”
Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii skated in the pairs’ free skate and finished the event in third place to earn eight points.
“For us it was really emotional,” team captain Sara Conti said. “It was a struggle until the last second. We only realized half way through that Matteo was going to get it. We are very proud of what we have achieved here at home in Italy.”
Ice dancers Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri skated in the rhythm dance and free dance, earning six and nine points for Team Italy respectively. Italy finished with 60 points overall.
Georgia finished the event in fourth place with 56 points, moving up from fifth place after the short program and rhythm dance. The change in placement was due in part to the second place finishes in the free skate from European Champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava and Anastasiia Gubanova. Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin and Nika Egadze also participate in the team event.
Canada rounded out the top five with 54 points. Stephen Gogolev finished fourth in the free skate and earned seven points for Canada, with Madeline Schizas, and the pairs team of Lia Perriera and Trennt Michaud finishing in fifth place in their respective free skates.
France, Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland did not reach the final free skate and finished in sixth through tenth place respectively.
