(Photo courtesy of James Squire of Getty Images) From left to right, Alysia Liu, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito
Jesse Nguyen
Connector Editor
This Winter Olympics in Milan will be one to break many cycles in the figure skating world, and America is at the core of this. While the sport has seen a steady decline in popularity globally, every four years it is still the most watched event at the Olympics. Despite this popularity, a lot of athletes prior to the Olympics are not known by the general public. This article shall highlight potential medal favorites, will be revisiting some history behind this sport, and examining how this stellar group of Americans can potentially reshape figure skating forever.
ilia Malinin, 21, will be America’s gold medal favorite this year for men’s singles skating and is reigned as the sports “quad god.” He is the only skater in the world who has landed a quadruple axel in competition, a jump thought to be physically impossible up until Malinin’s arrival. What makes the axel so difficult is the fact that a skater takes off forwards and lands backwards, adding an extra half rotation in the air. Although an incredible feat, what really sets him apart is his technical consistency. Malinin rarely falls and he is capable of performing all six types of jumps as quads.
Maxim Naumov, 24, is also on the American Olympic team. Although he isn’t a gold medal favorite for this year, his technical skill and artistry is exceptional and his likelihood of making it to the top 5 or the podium is high. Following the death of his parents in the D.C plane crash one year ago, his resilience will be beautifully showcased this year on the global stage. Fun fact: He skates at the Skating club of Boston and was born in Hartford Connecticut!
This Winter Olympics marks the first one in nearly a decade where the gold medal winner for women’s singles will likely not be a Russian athlete. Due to the war in Ukraine, the ISU (international skating union) does a meticulous screening and background check to make sure Russian athletes do not support the war. Only one Russian woman will be competing as an AIN athlete (individual neutral athlete), Adeliia Petrosian, 18. She is the first woman to land a quadruple loop, the third hardest jump. Petrosian is praised for her beautiful artistry, clever jump timings and can certainly deliver a performance. While she can do quads, they are often inconsistently landed and Petrosian has shown to let competition nerves affect her. Being the sole representative of her country at this year’s Olympics, time will tell whether she can bear the burden and rise above the pressure.
Part of why Russia has dominated figure skating for so long is because of a single coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who has mastered teaching young female skaters to land quadruple jumps and triple axels. Her athletes typically dominate every competition, but also have extremely short careers due to unhealthy technique that relies on the skater being younger and smaller. Our gold medal favorite this year is here to break the cycle, and her name is Alysa Liu.
Liu, 20, was the youngest American national champion at 13. In a heartbreaking Instagram post, she announced that she would retire from the sport in 2022, due to feeling fulfilled and that she was ready to be “moving on with [her] life.”
However, she made a comeback to the sport in 2024, announcing that she was reminded of the adrenaline rush she felt skating while skiing. In her first comeback season fresh out of retirement, Liu won the 2025 World Figure Skating championships in Boston, establishing an incredible comeback. Liu also represents a new age of figure skating in general, with her smiley piercing, dyed hair and refreshing gen-z humor and demeanor, she breaks the tension the sport has long had with its obsession with proper and graceful image.
While not a gold medal favorite, Amber Glenn, 26, is certainly in contention for a silver or bronze medal. She is the first openly queer woman to represent the United States in Olympic singles figure skating, the fourth American woman to land a clean triple axel in international competition, and the first American woman to qualify for Olympics singles at age 26 since 1928, an incredible feat in a sport that favors small, youthful bodies.
Glenn has been vital in shaping this sports image. She goes against what has been perceived to be the “ideal women” in this sport since the dawn of time; she’s queer, she has visible muscles, and she’s powerful. During the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Glenn won a gold medal, successfully landing her signature triple axel jump.
Lastly, Isabeau Levito, 18, rounds out America’s single women’s figure skating team. She won the silver medal in the 2024 World Championships, and also won the ISU Skating awards 2023: Best Newcomer. Skating since she was 3-years-old, Levito carries forward the technical and artistic tradition of the sport in masterfully crafted artistic programs that pay homage to her Italian background, something that will surely resonate with her while she is on Italian ice in Milan.
The most powerful aspect about these three athletes is their shared sisterhood in a sport where women are often pitted against each other. These three are consistently seen close together, laughing, hugging, and just having a good time. Compared to the last Olympics, where emotionally charged situations created tense moments, these three “blade angels” as dubbed by the media are sure to impress and entertain this year’s Olympics with their warm personalities and potentially revolutionary performances.
