Why Chock and Bates, Ilia Malinin will skip Olympic opening ceremony

MILAN — Some of the top U.S. figure skaters won’t be at the opening ceremony of the  2026 Winter Olympics.

The team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will not walk out with the rest of Team USA at San Siro Stadium on Friday, Feb. 6, they said after their rhythm dance in the team competition earlier in the day. Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn will not attend either, opting to rest and recover instead, according to U.S. Figure Skating.

“We’ll maybe have our own little Olympic small celebration, take some team photos,” Bates said. 

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This is Chock and Bates’ fourth Olympics, so they have been part of opening ceremonies before. The belief is the ice dance pair will also skate the free dance of the team competition, which takes place less than 24 hours after the opening ceremony.

Doing both team events would make it a full four-performance schedule for the couple.

Malinin, aka the “Quad God,” will skate the men’s short program on Day 2 of the team event, which is Saturday, Feb. 7. There is also a chance he could be needed for the free skate in the team competition. That would make for a quick turnaround for the all-important men’s individual event, which opens with the short program on Tuesday, Feb. 10, before the free skate on Feb. 13.

Glenn hasn’t competed yet in Milano Cortina, with Alysa Liu handling the short program for the women in the team competition, but the reigning U.S. champion is poised to be doing the free skate for the team event on Sunday, Feb. 8.

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