ST. LOUIS — The2026 U.S. figure skating championshipsare wrapping up tonight withIlia Malininlocking in on his fourth straight crown after ice dancersMadison ChockandEvan Batescaptured theirseventh national title.
Malinin, who will skate last in the free skate lineup, set himself far above the rest of the field after anepic performancein the short program, putting himself more than 15 points ahead of second place. For Chock and Bates, it's their fifth consecutive championship and it propels them to their fourth Olympic games together. U.S. Figure Skating will announce the2026 Olympic teamon Sunday.
FollowUSA TODAY Sportsfor live results, updates, scores and standings for Day 4 action.
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Emilia Nemirovsky skates in the women's short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Logan Higase-Chen skates in the women's short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Anabel Wallace performs in the women's short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Olivia Flores and Luke Wang perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Linzy Fitzpatrick and Keyton Bearinger perform in the pairs short program during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Enterprise Center on Jan. 7, 2026." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Figure skaters compete to represent the US in Milano Cortina
US figure skating championships results
Madison Chock and Evan Bates win 7th US figure skating championship
Madison ChockandEvan Bateshave another ice dance record.
The husband-and-wife duo have been on the podium at U.S. nationals every year since 2013. They have won five straight ice dance titles. And now they hold the record for most U.S. titles of all time, breaking a tie with Meryl Davis and Charlie White for most all-time.
"The feeling that we got fromt he audience today was unlike anything I've ever felt before," Chock said after, tears welling in her eyes. "It felt so special, I felt so much love and joy and I'm so grateful for this moment to share with everyone here and to share with Evan. It's been the most incredible, incredible career. Couldn't have asked for anything more."
Ultimately, their free dance yielded a double-digit victory — a program score of 137.17 and a total score of 228.87, 15.22 points than the second place team of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik.
It's just the latest feat in what's been a dominant season for the married couple. Since the start of 2025, they have won all but one of the seven competitions they entered, including winning the Grand Prix final in December for the third straight year.
The couple's return to the Winter Olympics is all but official, making Milano Cortina their fourth Games. The only thing that's eludes them in their decorated careers is that ice dance Olympic medal after finishing just short of the podium in 2022.
Men's figure skating results
Here is the lineup for tonight.
9:05 p.m.: Goku Endo
9:13 p.m.: Jimmy Ma
9:21 p.m.: Lucius Kazanecki
9:29 p.m.: Kai Kovar
9:37 p.m.: Liam Kapeikis
9:45 p.m.: Jacob Sanchez
10 p.m.: Daniel Martynov
10:08 p.m.: Andrew Torgashev
10:16 p.m.: Maxim Naumov
10:24 p.m.: Jason Brown
10:32 p.m.: Tomoki Hiwatashi
10:40 p.m.: Ilia Malinin
Here are the free skate scores so far.
Lorenzo Elano: 141.69 total segment score, 69.19 technical elements score, 73.50 program components score.
Michael Xie: 136.83 total segment score, 72.40 technical elements score, 64.43 program components score.
Emmanuel Savary: 127.93 total segment score, 59.63 technical elements score, 70.30 program components score.
Samuel Mindra: 125.02 total segment score, 53.76 technical elements score, 71.26 program components score.
Will Annis: 120.85 total segment score, 56.27 technical elements score, 64.58 program components score.
Ken Mikawa: 94.22 total segment score, 40.04 technical elements score, 55.18 program components score.
Ilia Malinin 'Quad God' nickname
Simply put,Ilia Malininhas the greatest array of jumps any figure skater in history has ever possessed. He's launched himself into the air for seven quadruple jumps in a single long program at last month's Grand Prix Final and was the first skater to land a quad Axel.
Malinin's username used to be Lutz God, but he changed it toQuad Godafter landing his first quad jump.
"I didn't think much about it … Days go by and people started asking, 'Why'd you name yourself Quad God, you only landed one jump,'" he said onMilan Magic, USA TODAY's new Olympics podcast that drops its first episode Saturday. "And then I was like, 'Oh, OK maybe I should be come a Quad God.' From there I found my rhythm of landing quad after quad after quad and then of course landing the first quad axel."
"In the most humble way possible, I think it's definitely helped my confidence in not only to skating in general but just feeling like I deserve to be recognized as who I am."
Ice dance overall standings
Madison Chock and Evan Bates: 228.87
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik: 213.65
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko: 206.95
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons: 202.05
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville: 197.29
Oona Brown and Gage Brown: 194.31
Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski: 186.60
Leah Neset and Artem Markelov: 176.46
Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani: 173.17
Amy Cui and Jonathan Rogers: 172.39
Eva Pate and Logan Bye: 170.49
Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal: 169.60
Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov: 166.62
Isabella Flores and Linus Colmor: 160.75
Vanessa Pham and Anton Spiridonov: 158.62
Here are the free dance scores.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates: 137.17 total segment score, x77.89technical elements score, 59.28 program components score.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik: 127.67 total segment score, 72.17 technical elements score, 55.50 program components score.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko: 123.66 total segment score, 69.24 technical elements score, 54.42 program components score.
Oona Brown and Gage Brown: 118.59 total segment score, 67.15 technical elements score, 51.44 program components score.
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville: 117.86 total segment score, 66.38 technical elements score, 51.48 program components score.
Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski: 111.61 total segment score, 62.33 technical elements score, 49.28 program components score.
Leah Neset and Artem Markelov: 105.18 total segment score, 57.74 technical elements score, 47.44 program components score.
Amy Cui and Jonathan Rogers: 104.79 total segment score, 59.23 technical elements score, 45.56 program components score.
Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani: 101.93 total segment score, 54.63 technical elements score, 47.30 program components score.
Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov: 101.47 total segment score, 57.27 technical elements score, 44.20 program components score.
Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal: 100.00 total segment score, 55.38 technical elements score, 44.62 program components score.
Vanessa Pham and Anton Spiridonov: 97.21 total segment score, 54.07 technical elements score, 43.14 program components score.
Eva Pate and Logan Bye: 96.95 total segment score, 51.15 technical elements score, 46.80 program components score.
Isabella Flores and Linus Colmor Jepsen: 94.38 total segment score, 51.44 technical elements score, 42.94 program components score.
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons: 121.50 total segment score, 68.06 technical elements score, 53.44 program components score.
Who is on the US Olympic figure skating team?
The team will be named on Sunday at 2 p.m. Three men and three women singles skaters will be chosen, as will three ice dance teams and two pairs, 16 athletes in all. The USFS selection process includes past performances, focusing on the athlete's body of work over the past two seasons.
Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito are roster locks, as are Madison Chock and Evan Bates. That leaves two spots open on the men's side, two ice dance team spots and both pairs spots.
What channel is figure skating on tonight?
TV: NBC
Livestream: Peacock
Men's free skate Groups 2 and 3: 9 p.m.
Ice dancing vs. figure skating
Ice dancing does not feature jumps or lifts, like you see figure skating pairs execute. Ice dancing is made up of two segments, the rhythm dance and the free dance.
How does Ilia Malinin come up with his programs?
It takes an innovative mind to be as sensational as Malinin, and his creative process is far from ordinary. He said much of it comes from his love of gymnastics and acrobatics, which is the reason why he's able to perform so much stunning jumps.
"It really pushes me to push the envelope in skating, not only just in a performance aspect, but also give it even more athleticism, other than all the jumps, all the spins and all of the hard things," he said. "It gives me a lot of fun, but at the same time, I feel like it's very useful for the sport to bring in something new, so everyone has something unique to watch."
Ilia Malinin: World champion, from US looks to first Winter Olympics
When do 2026 Winter Olympics start?
The opening ceremony for the Milano Cortina Games is Feb. 6. The closing ceremony is Feb. 22.
How does Ilia Malinin train for his quad jumps?
Malinin shared with Christine Brennan and Brian Boitano onMilan Magic, USA TODAY's new Olympics podcast that drops its first episode Saturday, that he likes to skate a full program at least once a day, but that doesn't mean every jump in that practice session must be a quad. It depends on how his body feels.
"For me, at least the standard base can be all triple jumps, just to keep that stamina, just to keep that stamina in there. But then, of course, depending on how I feel or how the training is going, then I can say, 'Maybe tomorrow I can go for a full quad layout or maybe do a full quad and the rest can be triples.'
"I think the main focus for me is just running the whole program in itself with all the jumps, all the spins and really just getting that muscle memory in your head because I think a lot of the times, especially with me, if I do a certain amount of triple jumps and I feel comfortable with it, then I can go and the quad jumps will get a little easier for me because I've been practicing that muscle memory for a while."
Milan Magic: Listen onApple,Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:US figure skating championships live results as Ilia Malinin goes for title
