Why people love Ilya Marinin
At the United States Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, fans shared why they love skater Ilia Marin.
take sports seriously
- The U.S. Olympic figure skating team is selected based on a series of initiatives, not just the U.S. Championships.
- Ilya Marinin, Amber Glenn, Alisa Liu, Isabeau Levit, Madison Chock and Evan Bates are considered the locks of the team.
- Some spots are still available, especially in the men’s and pairs disciplines
- U.S. Figure Skating plans to announce roster Sunday at 2 p.m.
ST. LOUIS — The U.S. Figure Skating Championships are over, and now the part everyone’s anticipating begins. Who will be representing the 2026 Winter Olympics?
Figure skating does not have the typical Olympic selection process, where spots are determined at U.S. championships or trials. Instead, the International Committee of U.S. Figure Skating will examine the athlete’s sequence of activities from the beginning of 2025 until the 2026 U.S. Championships.
The United States will send a total of 16 skaters to the Milan-Cortina Games, including three men’s, three women’s, two pairs and three ice dance pairs, and will announce the roster on Sunday. But while other players are on the bubble, we have a pretty good sense of who will definitely be on the roster. Classify candidates from lock to long shot.
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olympic rock
All of these skaters have cemented their place in Milan-Cortina. Marinin and Glenn in the singles and Chock and Bates in the ice dance were national champions, giving them the perfect send-off to Italy.
“God of the Quad” Malinin won the title by a whopping 57 points, and the young prodigy is undoubtedly the top skater in the world. Glenn and Liu have a combination of artistic beauty and fierceness, and have topped the standings in nearly every competition they have competed in. Levit placed third in St. Louis, securing his spot. Chock and Bates are powerhouses in the ice dance world, aiming for their first medals in the sport at their fourth Olympics.
In addition to their individual medal potential, all of these skaters give the U.S. a great chance to win gold in the team event.
probably
- pair: Ellie Kamm and Danny O’Shea
- Ice dance: Emilea Zingas and Vadim Kolesnik
This group isn’t a complete rock, but there’s a good chance they’ll join.
Cam and O’Shea finished second at the U.S. Championships, making them the top pair to qualify and finishing on the podium at two Grand Prix events this season. Behind Chock and Bates for most of the season were Zingas and Kolesnik, who finished second at the U.S. Championships and won two medals at the Grand Prix.
There’s a chance
- male: Jason Brown, Tomoki Hiwatari, Maxim Naumov, Andrew Tolgashev, Jacob Sanchez
- pair: Katie McBeth and Danielle Parkman. Audrey Singh and Balazs Nagy. Emily Cheung and Spencer Akira Howe
- Ice dance: Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko
This is where it gets really interesting. The biggest question is who will take the final two spots alongside Marinin. Brown looked like he was in trouble, but a disastrous loss in the free skate dropped him to 12th in his section and eighth overall, putting his Olympic berth in jeopardy.
The rest are Tolgashev, Naumov, and Hiwatari. Tolgashev may be the safest bet after bouncing back from a tough season to win back-to-back U.S. silver medals. Naumov made a remarkable comeback after losing his parents in a plane crash in January 2025, but Hiwatari had many ups and downs. Sanchez, an 18-year-old who rose to No. 4 in St. Louis, boosted his candidacy after a meteoric rise at the senior level. His performance may have accelerated his path to the Olympics.
A second pair of spots is also up for grabs. McBeth and Parkman won silver this year after finishing third in 2025 and are likely to surpass Singh and Nagy, who missed out on the podium in a grueling free skate. However, they won the ISU Challenger Series. The dark horses are Chan and Howe, who bounced back in the free skate at the U.S. Championships and finished fourth for the second year in a row.
Carreira and Ponomarenko earned the inside track to earn the third spot in ice dance after another podium finish.
long shot
- male: jimmy ma
- woman: brady tennell
- pair: Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov
- Ice dance: caroline green and michael parsons
Although hope remains, it is unlikely that this group will be successful.
Marr is a respected veteran skater who has hovered within the top five at the U.S. Championships in recent years. Tennell has proven she’s still an elite skater, but the women’s spots are stacked, with only three spots open.
Efimova and Mitrofanov will compete for their second consecutive U.S. title, but Efimova has not yet become a U.S. citizen after getting her green card approved in July 2024, and without a passport she will not be able to represent the United States at the Olympics. Green and Parsons have finished on the podium in nearly every event this season, but a fourth-place finish at the 2026 U.S. Championships could put them out of reach.
