The United States took early control of the Olympic figure skating team event after Friday’s opening day in Milan’s southern suburbs, powered by the world’s best score this season from Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The three-time world champions, who have been skating together since 2011 and married since 2024, set the milestone with 91.06 points for their program set to music by The Guess Who and Lenny Kravitz, earning the maximum 10 points for an American team that participated in the Winter Games with the wind at their backs.
Chock and Bates, nearly unbeatable since finishing fourth in the individual ice dancing event at the Beijing Games four years ago, skated with the precision and polish that has defined their rise to the top of the sport.
“We definitely skated great,” Bates said. “I think we both felt the excitement to get these Olympics started. 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 very happy. Getting to 90 is always a great achievement, and doing it to open the Games is even better.”
The team event, introduced at the 2014 Games in Sochi, brings together results from men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs and ice dancing, 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 the national team boxes between performances.
The US maintained its position in the remaining Friday segments as pairs team Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea finished fifth in their short program, 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 U.S. topped the rankings 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 challenge Japan for the title. Chock and Bates’ opening result strengthened that position, especially after Japan finished 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 broader standings. “We just do what we do.”
The opening session of the Milano Cortina figure skating program also attracted a large political audience. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who is in Italy to lead the official U.S. delegation at Friday night’s opening ceremony, attended the opening game of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team Thursday afternoon and saw the rhythm dance with his wife and three children ahead of an afternoon meeting at the Prefettura di Milano with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He was accompanied by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. FIFA president and friend of the government Gianni Infantino sat nearby.
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