2026 Olympic Women's Short Program: Japan Leads, Liu Third

The 2026 Winter Olympic women’s figure skating short program, held on February 17 at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, was a showcase of Japanese technical depth and high-stakes drama for Team USA. Out of the 29 qualified skaters, the top 24 advanced to the free skate, with the top of the leaderboard dominated by Japan.The Leaders: Japanese DominanceSeventeen-year-old Ami Nakai of Japan, the youngest competitor in the event, took a surprise lead with a career-best score of 78.71. Her performance to "La Strada" was highlighted by a soaring triple Axel—one of only two successfully landed in the competition—and a high-scoring triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination.Close behind in second place was teammate Kaori Sakamoto, the reigning three-time world champion, who earned 77.23 points. Performing to "Time to Say Goodbye," Sakamoto delivered an emotional and powerful skate that earned the highest program component scores of the night. Although she expressed some initial anxiety, she recovered to finish strongly, keeping herself in gold-medal contention. Japan's strength was further solidified by Mone Chiba, who placed fourth with 74.00 points, meaning Japanese skaters occupied three of the top four spots.Team USA: The "Blade Angels"The American trio, self-monikered the "Blade Angels," had a night of mixed results.• Alysa Liu delivered a standout performance to secure third place with a score of 76.59, an international personal best. In her second Olympics following a two-year retirement, Liu looked calm and centered, landing a difficult triple Lutz-triple loop combination. She is the first American woman to be in the top three after an Olympic short program since 2006.• Isabeau Levito finished in eighth place with 70.84 points. While she displayed her signature classical elegance and balletic quality in her Sophia Loren-inspired program, she was docked points for an under-rotated jump and lost a level on her step sequence.• Amber Glenn experienced a heartbreaking segment, finishing 13th with 67.39 points. Glenn opened her Madonna-themed program with a "superb" triple Axel that earned over 10 points, the highest-scoring single jump of the event. However, she later "popped" a planned triple loop into a double. Because a double loop is an invalid element in the women's short program, she received zero points for the jump, causing her score to tumble.Neutral Athletes and Other CompetitorsAdeliya Petrosian, competing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, placed fifth with a score of 72.89. Despite her status as an "unknown variable" due to lack of recent international experience, she delivered a clean skate to a Michael Jackson medley, showcasing a technical arsenal that kept her within striking distance of the podium. Other notable qualifiers included Georgia's Anastasiia Gubanova in sixth and Belgium's Loena Hendrickx in seventh.Moving Forward to the Free SkateThe competition remains tight heading into the free skate on February 19. While the Japanese skaters are positioned for a potential podium sweep, the narrow margins between the top five skaters—and the high-base-value jumps available to skaters like Glenn and Petrosian—ensure that the final medals remain undecided.AI tools were used in the translation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/champions-network--6884663/support.