The second half of the team event began later Saturday night with the free dance, where world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were back for the U.S. They won the rhythm dance on Friday, hours before the opening ceremony, giving the Americans the max of 10 points and plenty of momentum to begin the multi-discipline event.

Ilia Malinin will handle the men's short program in the team event, starting what is expected to be a golden Winter Olympics for the "Quad God."

Japan's Kaori Sakamoto took the top spot in the team event of the women's figure skating short program on Friday, comfortably beating Alysa Liu of the United States with a top-class performance at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Two pairs of American skaters compete Sunday in the short program. The top 16 finishers head to the free skate on Monday.

Malinin was skating in the team event in the short program portion, and he put up a 98.00. That was only good for second place. Japan's Yuma Kagiyama put up a 108.67, and his joy showed when he saw that score on the screen. There were two aspects at play here: technical difficulty and execution.

Team Canada's Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud sit third after the short program in the pair skating competition at Milano Cortina 2026.