The first figure skating medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics will be given out today following the conclusion of the team event.
Day 3 will feature the final three rounds of the competition: the pairs, men’s and women’s free skates. At the end of the rounds, the team with the highest cumulative score (done by placement) will win gold, second silver and third bronze.
Team USA, defending its gold medal from the 2022 team event, is going into the final day of the team event with a larger lead than it had going into day two. A dominant first-place finish by ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates and a second-place finish by “quad god” Ilia Malinin left the United States with 44 points, while second-place Japan has 39.
OLYMPICS FIGURE SKATING TEAM EVENT Day 3: what to know
- When: February 8, 1:30 p.m. ET
- Where: Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan, Italy)
- Channel: USA Network
- Streaming: DIRECTV (try it free)
In the pairs free skate, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea will once again represent Team USA and they will keep Ilia Malinin in for the men’s free skate. Using one of two allowed swaps, Amber Glenn will skate the women’s free program (Alysa Liu skated the short program).
Figure skating team event day 3 TV schedule
- Team Event: Pairs Free Skate – Feb. 8, 1:30 p.m. ET
- Team Event: Women’s Free Skate – Feb. 8, 2:45 p.m. ET
- Team Event: Men’s Free Skate – Feb. 8, 3:55 p.m. ET
How to watch the Olympic figure skating team event for free
If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream the Olympics for free.
DIRECTV is our favorite service for watching TV live for free — it has a five-day free trial and there are a ton of options for plans that include USA Network (and every other channel you’ll need for the Olympics), including genre packs that offer more flexibility at lower price points. USA Network is part of the MySports ($69.99/month) genre pack with 20+ channels.
You can also catch every minute of the Olympics with a subscription to Peacock, which starts at $10.99/month.
Figure skating team event standings
Heading into the final day of the team event, here’s where the five remaining teams fall on the leaderboard. France, Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland were eliminated following the men’s short program for finishing outside of the top five.
- United States of America, 44 points
- Japan, 39 points
- Italy, 37 points
- Canada, 35 points
- Georgia, 32 points
Figure skating team event start list
Pairs free skate
- Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (United States of America)
- Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (Canada)
- Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (Italy)
- Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia)
- Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan)
Women’s free skate
- Madeline Schizas (Canada)
- Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia)
- Lara Naki Gutmann (Italy)
- Amber Glenn (United States of America)
- Kaori Sakamoto (Japan)
Men’s free skate
- Nika Egadze (Georgia)
- Matteo Rizzo (Italy)
- Stephen Gogolev (Canada)
- Ilia Malinin (United States of America)
- Shun Sato (Japan)
How does the figure skating team event at the Winter Olympics work?
Introduced in 2014, the team event is the newest figure skating event at the Olympics. Similar to the gymnastics team event held in the Summer Olympics, this team event combines all four of figure skating’s disciplines (men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, ice dance) into a single medal event with eight components.
This year, ten countries qualified for the team event, including both the gold and silver medalists (USA and Japan) from the 2022 edition.
The team event is judged on placements rather than how many points an individual or pair routine gets; the skater or pair with the highest score receives 10 points toward the country’s total, second gets nine points, and so on. After the first round of competition wraps up (following rhythm dance, and short programs for pairs, men and women), the five teams with the lowest point totals are eliminated.
The second round features the top five teams’ free dance and free skate programs for pairs, men and women. The judging and point assignments are consistent with the first round.
At the end of the second round, medals are awarded based on final placements.
Figure Skating at the Olympics 2026 schedule
- Ice Dance – Rhythm Dance — Feb. 9, 1:20 p.m. ET
- Men’s Singles – Short Program — Feb. 10, 12:30 p.m. ET
- Ice Dance – Free Dance — Feb. 11, 1:30 p.m. ET*
- Men’s Singles – Free Skating — Feb. 13, 1 p.m. ET*
- Pairs – Short Program — Feb. 15, 1:45 p.m. ET
- Pairs – Free Skating — Feb. 16, 2 p.m. ET*
- Women’s Singles – Short Program — Feb. 17, 12:45 p.m. ET
- Women’s Singles – Free Skating — Feb. 19, 1 p.m. ET*
- Exhibition Gala — Feb. 21, 2 p.m. ET
*medals awarded
When do the Winter Olympics end?
The 2026 Winter Olympics end with the closing ceremony on Feb. 22 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
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This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping, Page Six, and Decider.com. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she’s also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. When she’s not writing about (or watching) TV, movies, and sports, she’s also keeping up on the underrated perfume dupes at Bath & Body Works and testing headphones. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews.
