The United States seized early control of the Olympic figure skating team event after Friday’s opening day on the southern outskirts of Milan, powered by a world’s best score this season from Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The three-time world champions, together on skates since 2011 and married since 2024, set the marker with 91.06 points for their program to music by The Guess Who and Lenny Kravitz, earning the maximum 10 points for an American team entering the Winter Games on a tailwind of hype.
Chock and Bates, nearly unbeatable since finishing fourth in the individual ice dance event at the Beijing Games four years ago, skated with the precision and polish that have defined their rise to the top of the sport.
“We definitely skated great,” Bates said. “I think we both felt the excitement of just getting these Olympics under way. You never know what to expect with the score. There was even a little delay because they said it in Italian, we were looking for the score, and once we saw it, we were thrilled. To break 90 is always a great feat, and to do it to open the Games is even better.”
Introduced at the 2014 Sochi Games, the team event brings together results across men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs and ice dance, with countries awarded points based on finishing position rather than raw score. The format also creates one of the few team environments in figure skating, with skaters watching and cheering from national team boxes between performances.
The US maintained their position across the remaining Friday segments as pairs team Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea finished fifth in their short programme, while Alysa Liu closed strongly in the women’s short program, scoring 74.90 to finish second behind Japan’s three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (78.88).
After three of the four short programs in the team event, the US topped the table with 25 points, followed by Japan with 23 and Italy with 22. Only the top five teams after the short programs advance to the free skate phase.
The Americans arrived in Milan as defending champions after being elevated to gold following the fallout from the Beijing 2022 team event and were widely expected to battle Japan for the title. Chock and Bates’ opening result strengthened that position, particularly after Japan placed eighth in the rhythm dance earlier in the session.
For Chock and Bates, however, the focus remains on their own performances.
“We’re not focused on that,” Chock said of the wider standings. “We’re just doing what we do.”
The opening session of the Milano Cortina figure skating program also drew a high-profile political audience. US vice-president JD Vance, who is in Italy to lead the official US delegation at Friday night’s opening ceremony attended the US women’s ice hockey team’s opening game on Thursday afternoon, watched the rhythm dance with his wife and three children ahead of an afternoon meeting at the Prefettura di Milano with Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. He was joined by US secretary of state Marco Rubio. Fifa president and friend of the administration Gianni Infantino was seated nearby.
