Singles, Women

The women’s singles figure skating event at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games was held on 17 and 19 February at the Milano Ice Skating Arena. It featured 29 athletes from 21 nations.

The favourites for the medals were led by Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, Beijing 2022 bronze medalist, three-time World Champion (2022, 2023, 2024), 2025 World silver medalist, and a picture of consistency, known as the “total package.”

Her biggest challenger was Beijing 2022 Olympian, American [Alysa Liu] (), the 2025 World Champion and 2022 World bronze medalist, who was on a comeback trail after retiring at age 16, wanting to experience a normal life. Another American with a shot at the podium was Amber Glenn, who, a few days prior, won a gold medal in the team event (along with Liu) for the United States. Making her Olympic début was Japan’s rising star Ami Nakai, the 2024 World Junior Championships bronze medalist.

It was Nakai who delivered a composed and technically strong short program, scoring 78.71 points. She was closely followed by her Japanese teammate Sakamoto, who executed a polished and nearly error-free skate, scoring 77.23 points. Liu sat in third after the short (76.59 points), but was still in striking distance for the top of the podium for the free skate. Because Glenn had an error-filled short program and downgraded her required triple jump, it was ruled an invalid element under technical rules, earning no base value, she was left in 13th place with a podium finish effectively out of reach.

In the free skate, Liu skated with complete freedom, as if she had no cares in the world, earning one of the night’s highest scores (150.20 points) and rising from third to gold in a defining Olympic moment that symbolized her remarkable comeback and created one of the Games’ most enduring images. Her victory ended a 24-year drought for US women’s Olympic singles gold in figure skating (since Sarah Hughes at Salt Lake 2002). Her free skate to “MacArthur Park” by Donna Summer became a viral cultural moment that captured global attention.

Despite scoring higher than Liu on all scoring components in the free skate, except technical elements (72.83 vs 77.74), Sakamoto was left 1.89 points behind Liu for total overall combined points, settling for the silver in what was her last Olympics. Visibly upset by not becoming the Olympic Champion, the cameras that surrounded her were shoe’d away by Glenn, who rushed to comfort the four-time Olympic medalist.

Nakai’s’s lead after the short program wasn’t enough to hold her on top, finishing ninth in the free skate with a score of 140.45 points, but her overall performance secured a strong bronze medal finish, which almost left her in shock, it taking Liu to convince her it was true, with the both of them eventually jumping for joy together.

The story of resilience, however, came from Amber Glenn: after a rough short program, she delivered one of the top free skate scores (third highest with 147.52 points), climbing to a very respectable fifth overall and, however, left Milano with an Olympic gold medal in the team event.