MILAN, Italy — In her first Olympics, in her mother’s hometown and very close to where her grandmother still lives, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito earned a score of 131.96 in the free skate, or long program on Thursday.
The 18-year-old wound up in eighth place in the short program after a score of 70.84 and 13th in the free skate. But scores, rather than placements are what count, so she wound up in 12th place with a 202.80.
In the end, her teammate, friend, and fellow Blade Angel, Alysa Liu, won her second Olympic gold, after helping win the team event last week.
Liu, 20, scored 150.20 to win the free skate. She was the only skater to have positive grades of execution on all elements. She was third in Tuesday’s short program.
Liu also is the reigning world champion.
Two Japanese skaters earned silver and bronze.
Kaori Sakamoto, the favorite entering the Olympics, earned the silver after winning bronze at the 2022 Games. She was second in both the short and free programs.
Ami Nakai, 17, who won the short program, was ninth in the free skate despite landing one of only two triple Axels on Thursday night. She had won the short program. She earned the bronze medal.
Alysa Liu is the Olympic women’s figure skating champion.
Levito entered the day in eighth place and was in sixth after that skate, with seven more skaters to go.
She had an uncharacteristic fall on her opening triple flip, which was supposed to be in combination, but skated with her usual elegant spins and footwork to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone, Italian music for the occasion. Levito was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Mount Holly, and now lives closer to where she trains, in Mount Laurel.
“I did my best” after the fall, Levito said in the mixed zone following her performance. “I just went on autopilot, and the rest went how it usually goes.”
Despite the fall and placement, Levito said she felt better at this competition than at the World Figure Skating Championships, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, or other competitions.
“Honestly, I felt like I had more energy,” she said. “And I don’t know if it’s because consciously I know I’m at the Olympics, or if it’s the crowd. The crowd is very, very energetic and supportive here.”
Levito skated in the second-to-last group (the free skate goes in reverse placement order from the short program). She wore a light blue, sparkly dress for the occasion.
After Tuesday’s nearly clean short program, many on social media felt that Levito had been underscored. Some felt that after the free skate as well.
In the previous group, Levito’s fellow Blade Angel, Amber Glenn, skated a far better program than she had in the team event (where she was part of the gold-medal win) or Tuesday’s short program.
She was third in the free skate and fifth overall after finishing 13th in an error-filled short program.
Glenn, the reigning and three-time U.S. champion, opened the free skate with her trademark triple Axel, landing it strongly, and knocked off element after element, only putting a hand down on her triple loop. She earned a season-best score of 147.52, for a total of 214.91.
Glenn gave Levito a standing ovation from the leader’s chair near the kiss-and-cry area.
Adeliia Petrosian, a Russian skater competing under a neutral flag, was seen as a potential medalist as well. She was the only woman to attempt a quadruple jump. She opened her free skate with the quad toe loop but fell on it. She wound up fifth in both the short and free skate and sixth overall.
MILAN, Italy — South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito, 18, landed in eighth place in Tuesday’s short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Competing in her mother’s hometown, just minutes from where her grandmother still lives, Levito, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, started her short program a little tight but landed all of her elements.
“I feel very good,” Levito told NBC after she skated. “I feel like I skated with the elegance I wanted to skate with. And I’m very glad my Olympic debut looked like that. I feel very confident and just very happy with myself right now.”
Levito’s program, to a compilation of sassy songs from Sophia Loren movies, opened with a triple flip-triple toe loop combination. Then she moved on to a double Axel and a flying camel, which got a Level 4, the highest. Her first three elements got positive grades of execution.
Next came her triple loop, which was judged to be a quarter-rotation short. Five of the nine judges gave her a minus-1 grade of execution and one gave her a minus-2.
South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito placed eighth in women’s short program.
The second half of Levito’s program included a step sequence, which was called at a Level 3 rather than the Level 4 she usually has received.
She then skated combination spin that received a Level 4 and grades of execution up to plus-5, the highest available. She wrapped up with a layback spin into a Biellmann that received a Level 4 and plus-3 and plus-4 grades of execution.
South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito receives her scores following the short program accompanied by her coaches, Yulia Kuznetsova (left) and Slava Kuznetsov.
Her score was a 70.84, nearly three points lower than her season’s best, which she skated at the Grand Prix of France.
However, Levito’s program components (or artistic mark) was the fourth-highest of the night. Only Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Mone Chibe and American Alysa Liu placed higher.
Many on social media thought Levito was underscored.
On the technical side, Levito was not alone in the small mistakes. Most of the women had some rotation issues, although most skated fairly clean.
Ami Nakai of Japan won the women’s short program figure skating at the Winter Olympics.
Japan’s Ami Nakai, the youngest skater in the competition at age 17 (which now is the youngest age allowed in international figure skating at the senior level), won the short program. She opened with a clean triple Axel, and she received positive grades of execution on all of her elements, making her the only woman with a clean score sheet. Her step sequence and spins received Level 4 grades of execution. She earned a season-best 78.71.
Sakamoto has been the sentimental favorite this year after placing third in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (and notably being the only happy one on the medal stand, after much drama with the Russian women over doping allegations and placements). Sakamoto also has won the World Championships three times after being displaced last year by Liu. She helped lead Japan to a silver medal in the Olympic team event for the second time in a row last week.
Sakamoto has said this will be her last year competing, and her short program is to “Time To Say Goodbye,” by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan competes is in second after women’s short program figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy.
She received an exclamation mark on her opening triple Lutz, meaning it was not clear whether she took off on the required outside edge or had shifted to an inside edge. Her triple flip-triple toe loop combination also was called a quarter of a rotation short.
She is less than a point behind Nakai, earning 77.23 for her short program.
The highest-placing American woman of the night was Liu, who wound up in third place. She repeated last year’s winning short program, to “Promise,” by Laufey. After she skated, she said she was unconcerned with placements but was more excited to have people see her work and to have her siblings and friends in the audience, most of whom had never seen her compete.
Liu received all positive grades of execution, mostly plus-3 to plus-5, except for her triple Lutz-triple loop combination (a particularly difficult one, therefore worth more points), which was called a quarter short. Her score was 76.59.
Amber Glenn, the three-time U.S. champion, started her program (to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”) strong with a triple Axel that received up to plus-3 grades of execution. (She and Nakai were the only women of the night to attempt the jump.)
Her triple flip-triple toe loop combination was called a quarter short. But she made a big mistake in the middle of the program when she doubled her intended triple loop. A solo triple jump is a required element in the short program, so the double loop received no points. She finished strong with a Level 4 step sequence and two Level 4 spins, but Liu, watching on a monitor in the mixed zone, wondered if Glenn had changed the program on the fly after a mistake.
Glenn’s score was 67.39, well below her season’s best of 75.72, and she was in 13th after the short program.
The short program also included the return of two Russian women, skating under a neutral flag. Viktoriia Safonova was the first to skate and was not among the top 24 (of 29) skaters who qualified for Thursday’s free skate.
The other Russian woman, Adeliia Petrosian, skated second and has been considered a medal contender. She scored a strong 72.89, which would not be topped until the 18th skater performed. That was by Nakai, the eventual winner.
Levito, Liu, and Glenn call themselves the Blade Angels, modeled somewhat on women’s Olympic gymnastics teams, which give themselves names, and somewhat on Charlie’s Angels.
Liu and Glenn shared in last week’s Olympic gold medal in the team event. Only up to two skaters from each team could be chosen for the women’s section. Levito, who has said she has flown somewhat under the radar since suffering an injury last year and missing part of the season (but came back to place fourth at the world championships in Boston), was not selected to compete. Only those who skate share in the medal.
Breaking down Isabeau Levito’s figure skating costumes over the years
Since 2022, South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito has been one of figure skating’s biggest stars. Ahead of her Olympic debut Thursday in the women’s short program, we took a look back at her costumes since she burst onto the scene at 14 years old.
Isabeau Levito competes during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
A star is born
Isabeau Levito, of Mount Holly, competes in the short program at the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville. Levito went on to win the bronze medal, but at 14, she is too young to make the Winter Olympics team.
Levito made her senior debut during the 2021-22 season at age 14. She skated her short program to “The Swan,” by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed by Joshua Bell.
Isabeau Levito was too young for the Olympics in 2022, but she won the bronze medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in this dress, made in Russia. She was also named to the World Junior Championships, where she skated to the “Russian Dance” from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, and won.
Isabeau Levito competes in the women’s free skate program during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
Isabeau Levito wore a Spanish-inspired dress for her short program in the 2022-23 season. She skated to “Una noche más” by Yasmin Levy.
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s short program at the U.S. figure skating championships in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Josie Lepe)
National champion
Isabeau Levito reacts after her performance during the women’s free skate at the U.S. figure skating championships in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Josie Lepe)
In January 2023, Levito won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif. She went on to place fourth at the World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan.
Reputation era
21 September 2023, Bavaria, Oberstdorf: Figure Skating: Challenger Series – Nebelhorn Trophy, Individual, Ladies, Short Program. Isabeau Levito from the USA on the ice. Photo by: Angelika Warmuth/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Early in the 2023-24 season, Levito wore a dress with a snake wrapped around her neck and the head on her arm. Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates had a snake program a few years before, and Chock advised Levito on this program.
Switching gears
COLUMBUS, OHIO – JANUARY 25: Isabeau Levito skates in the Women’s Short Program Dance during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Nationwide Arena on January 25, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Levito changed her short program midseason in 2023-24. Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Levito stopped getting dresses made in Russia. This one was made by Josiane Lamond in Canada.
Levito wore this layered black, white, and gray dress the first part of the 2023-24 season for her long program, skating to “The White Crow,” by Lisa Batiashvili. After placing third in the short program at Skate America that season, she finished second in the free skate to end in second overall.
Isabeau Levito, of the United States, competes in the women’s free skate program during the Grand Prix Skate America Series in Allen, Texas, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman)
Silver star
Isabeau Levito, of the United States, poses with her silver medal at the world figure skating championships Friday, March 22, 2024, in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Levito won the silver medal at the 2024 world championships in Montreal with this dress by Canada’s Lamond.
Road to Milan
Isabeau Levito of the United States skates in the Women’s Short Program in the 2025 Skate Canada International event in Saskatoon, on Friday, October 31, 2025. (Matt Smith/The Canadian Press via AP)
Levito is wearing this red dress by Lisa McKinnon for her short program this Olympic season. She is skating to a compilation of sassy songs from Sophia Loren movies. At Skate Canada, a Grand Prix event, she placed second with this routine.
Ticket punched
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
Levito is wearing this blue dress by McKinnon for her free skate (or long program) this season, and skates to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone. She won bronze at January’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships to earn the trip to Milan.
A throwback
South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was announced as an Olympian on Sunday. She skated during the “Making Team USA” performance following the announcement.
Levito was injured for a chunk of 2024-25 season, so she did not compete at the U.S. championships, but came back to place fourth at worlds. She wore this dress from that year’s program for the exhibition after making the Olympic team.
Flying high
Red Bull commissioned this dress for Isabeau Levito from dressmaker Lisa McKinnon, who made costumes for all three American women in 2026, as well as many of the international competitors. It was featured in an amusing campaign on social media.
Red Bull commissioned this dress for Levito from McKinnon, who made costumes for all three American women in 2026, as well as many of the international competitors. It was featured in an amusing campaign on social media.
At 3, she had watched the 2010 Winter Games on TV and was charmed by the figure skating, mimicking Coatesville native Johnny Weir’s movements on the screen. Her mother, Chiara Garberi, thought they’d try skating and brought her to the Igloo Ice Rink in Mount Laurel. Levito quickly took to it.
The next year, she skated in her first event, the Philadelphia Areas Figure Skating Competition. She won. It was the first of many victories as she moved up the levels.
About five years ago, the 2023 U.S. champion said, it all came into focus. The Olympics could be a reality, and the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina could be her Games.
With Italy in her sights, both of her programs this year were set to Italian music. The short is to a compilation of sassy songs from Sophia Loren movies. The free skate, or long program, is to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone.
In January, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, that goal became a reality. She skated two clean programs with her signature beautiful footwork and spins and won the bronze medal.
“Isabeau Levito is the skater in the snow globe,” NBC commentator and 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski said on the Today show.
“The Olympics is [always] in the back of your mind,” Levito said last month. “Because, technically, everything gets you there — slowly. But the next stop is actually the Olympics. It’s insane.”
Not that she has any plans to retire after this season. Levito said she already is looking forward to the offseason, when she can work on some of the hardest jumps. This season was all about consistency and her best elements.
But as she grew up, these Olympics seemed like the Games to aim for. Her mother grew up in Milan. Her grandmother and other relatives still live there. She knew she would be 18 and would have a few years as a senior competitor under her belt.
Except for some minor bumps in the plans, including an injury that took her out for much of last season, Levito’s timeline worked out. All along the way, her elegant skating earned her medals at almost every important event leading up to this month’s Olympics.
Born in Philadelphia, Levito grew up in Mount Holly and now lives closer to the rink in Mount Laurel, which has been her second home for nearly her entire life.
She was named after Michelle Pfeiffer’s character in Ladyhawke, her mother’s favorite movie.
“As a young, young kid, I was like, ‘Why is this my name?’” Levito said. “I always have to explain it.”
The pronunciation is “ease-a-bow,” Levito said, but she’s fine with people calling her “izz-a-bow.”
Isabeau Levito’s programs this season are set to Italian music, a nod to the Olympics’ location and her mother’s homeland.
She never had to move away from South Jersey to train (“We love Wawa” and she doesn’t love pumping gas, she told Team USA).
She has had the same coach — Yulia Kuznetsova — the whole time. She also works with Kuznetsova’s husband, Slava Kuznetsov, as well as Otar Japaridze, a former Georgian ice dancer, who competed in those 2010 Olympics that caught Levito’s attention. (Japaridze‘s partner was Allison Reed, who now skates with Saulius Ambrulevicius and finished sixth in ice dance, representing Lithuania.)
“I have a really, really good coaching team,” Levito said, “they kind of hit all the spots with me, and I’ve been working with them since the very beginning. I feel like they made me such a well-rounded skater.”
South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito skates after being named an Olympian at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.
In 2020, she was one of the top two skaters in the eastern sectional at the novice level, so she was invited to skate in juniors at nationals. Most skaters who do that don’t place and need to change their programs midseason to accommodate different requirements. But Levito earned silver that year as well.
After that, she competed as a senior. Her first year, she earned the bronze medal at nationals but, at 14, was too young to make the Olympic team. (That year, both of her 2026 Olympic teammates had to sit out nationals because they had COVID-19. Alysa Liu already was a two-time national champion, so she made the team anyway. Amber Glenn had been the silver medalist the year before, but she was not chosen.)
Over the years, she won six Grand Prix series medals, including the silver at the Grand Prix Final in 2022 and the gold at the Grand Prix of France in 2023. She also was the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships silver medalist.
When she’s not on the ice, she’s decorating her apartment, reading, crocheting, bedazzling her makeup cases, and taking care of her cat.
“I wouldn’t want to do [college] online,” Levito said last March. “I would want to go in person.”
But the run-up to the Olympics has been extra busy.
“I‘m aware that if I want to go to university next year, I need to do the SATs, the college admissions,” she said in December. “So it makes me think that maybe I might wait another year.”
But first comes her Olympic debut. There is talk that the U.S. women — who named themselves Blade Angels — could sweep the podium.
The three are good friends. In December, Liu called Levito “the wittiest person I ever met.”
Glenn is the three-time U.S. champion and 2024 Grand Prix Final champion. Along with her two national wins, Liu is the reigning world and Grand Prix Final champion.
But they’re not the only stars. The Japanese team includes three-time world champion and 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto. Her two teammates also are serious contenders.
Another contender is Adeliia Petrosian, from Russia, who is the only woman competing who is likely to attempt quadruple jumps.
“And obviously skating my best,” she said, “but I can already feel like I will. So that’s really what I’m really striving for.”
How to watch
Women’s short program: Tuesday, Groups 1 and 2, 12:45 p.m. on USA and Peacock. Groups 3, 4, and 5, 2:40 p.m. on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and Peacock. (Levito will skate in Group 4 or 5.)
Women’s free skate: Thursday, 1 p.m., on NBC and Peacock, 1:30 p.m. on USA.
Figure skating is one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics.
But many only follow it every four years, which can make it confusing when the rules change — as they do annually. Most of the names also are new since 2022.
Plus, figure skating is a judged sport, so sometimes the skater you love might get dinged on rules you don’t know and not place as well as you’d expect.
Here is a breakdown of how to watch the Olympic figure skating events:
What are people talking about?
The Blade Angels
The American skaters! Team USA has been a powerhouse off and on, but 2026 is very much an on year.
On the women’s side, all three women — who call themselves the Blade Angels — have major titles to their name. South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito is the 2023 U.S. champion and the 2024 world silver medalist. The 18-year-old was born in Philadelphia and lives and trains in Mount Laurel.
Amber Glenn is a three-time U.S. champion and won the Grand Prix Final in 2024.
Alysa Liu is a two-time national champion and the reigning world and Grand Prix Final champion.
Ilia Malinin skates his program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January in St. Louis.
The Quad God
Ilia Malinin named himself the Quad God early on, and he’s lived up to that name, landing seven triples (the six major jumps plus one in combination at the 2025 Grand Prix Final in December.
He is the only man in the world to land a quad axel in international competition. Sometimes called the quaxel, it is 4½ revolutions in the air with a forward (read: harder) takeoff.
The quad axel was the talk of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu was going to attempt it. But he did not land it cleanly.
Malinin has competed it many times since then. Thanks to the difficulty of the move and his consistency, he has not lost a competition he skated in several years.
All three men on the U.S. team are second-generation skaters. Malinin’s parents represented Uzbekistan at two Games.
Andrew Torgashev’s Ukrainian mother, Ilona Melnichenko, competed for the Soviet Union and was the 1987 World Junior champion in ice dancing. His Russian father, Artem Torgashev, was a pairs skater, also for the Soviet Union, and is a two-time World Junior Championships medalist.
Ice dancer Anthony Ponomarenko’s parents, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, are the only ice dancers to have won an Olympic medal of every color. They are the 1992 Olympic champions.
Married ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are seven-time national champions.
Chock and Bates
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are back for their fourth and fifth Olympics, respectively. The married couple has a team gold medal from the 2022 Winter Olympics. They are seven-time national champions and three-time world champions. The only title they haven’t earned yet is an individual Olympic medal. There are a few other teams who could challenge them for Olympic gold, but they have the edge entering the event.
The oldest competitor and whether she can skate
Deanna Stellato-Dudek is 42 and competed in singles for the United States when she was a teenager. She retired because of injury but came back 16 years later when she realized her unfulfilled Olympic dream. She competed in pairs for Team USA before teaming up with Maxime Deschamps and eventually getting her Canadian citizenship.
After a four-year ban because of the war in Ukraine, Russia was allowed to send a limited number of skaters to an Olympic qualifier competition to compete as neutral athletes. They were not considered if they had shown any support for the war. Two women qualified: Adeliia Petrosian and Viktoriia Safonova. Petrosian is in contention for a medal and likely will be the only woman to attempt quads at the Games.
One neutral Russian man was cleared to compete, Petr Gumennik. No pairs or ice dancers were allowed.
Who else is on Team USA?
The other U.S. dance teams in Milan are Ponomorenko and Christina Carreira, who’s from Canada and recently became a U.S. citizen. They are the 2026 U.S. bronze medalists and medaled twice at the World Junior Championships.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik teamed up in 2022 and quickly found success. They are the 2026 U.S. silver medalists.
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea compete during the pairs free skate in January.
In pairs, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the 2026 U.S. silver medalists and 2024 champs, are fan favorites because O’Shea competed through three Olympic cycles before he made the team. They are 13 years apart.
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe overcame a rough short program to place fourth (and win the pewter medal) in January’s U.S. championships. They made the team because other top teams’ skaters didn’t share citizenship. Chan and Howe are the 2023 U.S. silver medalists. Howe is in the World Class Athlete Program of the U.S. Army and hopes to become an Army chaplain.
Normally, skaters compete individually or in pairs. In 2014, the team event was added to Olympic competitions. Different skaters can skate the long and short programs for each event (men’s, women’s, pairs, dance), but a team can repeat in two events.
Only the ones chosen to skate win medals, rather than the entire Olympic team.
The team event began with ice dance on Friday and ran through Sunday. Individual events begin Monday, also with ice dance.
In 2022, Russia was poised to win the gold, with the United States right behind it and then Japan. But after 15-year-old Kamila Valieva was found with banned drugs in her system, she was retroactively banned for four years. (That period recently expired, and Valieva is training again.)
In past team events, the United States won bronze in 2014 and 2018. Russia and Canada were the other medalists both years (Russia won in 2014, and Canada in 2018).
Pairs has the big jumps, throws, and lifts. Dance is almost entirely footwork and is based on ballroom dance.
What is the difference between the short program and the long program?
The short program has a set of required elements that the skaters must perform. They have some freedom within those restrictions. For example, if they are told to do a triple jump, they may choose any triple jump. Generally, they choose the harder jumps because they earn more points. But they may also choose the jump they do best.
If skaters miss a required element, they get a zero for it. For example, if a triple jump is required and the skater does a double instead, it is as if he or she didn’t jump at all.
In dance, the short program is called the rhythm dance. A theme is chosen every year. This year, it is “the music, dance styles, and feeling of the 1990s.”
The long program has more freedom, but it still must be a “well-balanced program,” meaning a combination of elements covering the full surface of the ice.
The short program for singles and pairs is 2 minutes, 40 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds. The rhythm dance is 2:50, plus or minus 10 seconds.
The long program for all is four minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds.
What are the differences between figure skating jumps?
The skating blade looks flat, but it actually is sharpened to a curve with two edges.
Jumps take off from an edge (axel, loop, Salchow) or from the skater tapping in his or her toe (flip, Lutz, toe loop).
The axel is a forward entry but lands backward. All other jumps start and land backward.
The flip and Lutz are very similar toe jumps, but the flip is from an inside edge, and the Lutz from the outside, meaning the Lutz requires slightly more rotation, and thus is given more points.
A common mistake is that a skater will aim to do one but change the edge at the last minute. Commentators often talk about that as a “flutz.”
Another common mistake is a “cheated” jump, meaning the blade lands at least a quarter turn short of rotation. That results in a deduction or sometimes even a downgrade, meaning an intended triple jump is called a double.
Which skaters are expected to do well?
Along with the U.S. women, the Japanese women are very strong. They are led by three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who won the Olympic bronze medal in 2022.
On the men’s side, along with Malinin, the top contenders include Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who earned the silver medal at the 2022 Olympics and is also a three-time World silver medalist. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa and Kazakstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov are others to watch.
The top ice dancers are Chock and Bates. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the silver medal behind Chock and Bates in the last two world championships.
Silver medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (left), gold medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and bronze medalists Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson celebrate their medals at worlds in 2025.
The pairs contenders are led by Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, the reigning world champions. Others include Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii (Italy), Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (Germany), and Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia).
How is Olympic figure skating judged and scored?
The judging system was changed after the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics judging scandal, when two judges allegedly colluded to make certain skaters champions. The 6.0 system was replaced by IJS, the international judging system, which defines how many points each element is worth.
The officials include judges and a technical panel. The technical panel determines an element — including whether a triple should be downgraded to count as a double — and the judges decide the quality of the element. Skaters may be given a positive or negative grade of execution depended on how the element was performed. They also are given points for skating skills, transitions between elements, and performance. This is how a more artistic skate with fewer big jumps, can still do well. It is also how a skater with lots of impressive jumps but easier footwork may not win.
Weeks before she had made the team, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was confidently saying, “when I go to the Olympics …”
Levito, 18, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, wasn’t being cocky. She knew; she had done the math.
Qualifying for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics was “definitely a realistic goal for me for the past three years,” said Levito, the 2023 U.S. champion and 2024 world silver medalist. “But I felt like I had to prove myself again after missing a bit of last season with an injury.
“But when the season was going the way it was going, score-wise, internationally, I just had to skate the way I can skate at nationals and have it solidified.”
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
Indeed, with two clean programs and the bronze medal at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships earlier this month, combined with strong results throughout the season and last year, that spot was hers.
So when she met with Justin Dillon, chief high performance officer for U.S. Figure Skating, who told her reality show-style that she was on the team, Levito seemed happy but not surprised. Her head coach, Yulia Kuznetsova, however, was flooded with tears.
Kuznetsova skated pairs while growing up in Russia and later in Disney on Ice, where she performed with her now-husband and another of Levito’s coaches, Slava Kuznetsov. But she never made it to that top frozen stage — until now as a coach.
Kuznetsova also knew it was within reach. But the duo knew what they needed to do.
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
They opted this season for a triple flip combination instead of a triple Lutz. They thought the flip had a better chance of being called clean. (This worked out, but her individual triple Lutz also has been getting better results lately.)
“Next season, I really want to switch things around and do new things and have more fun with it,” Levito said, “because this season it was a matter of doing all the skills that I honed, all the things that are the most comfortable and the most reliable. But next season, let’s just start risking things.”
She’s looking forward to being fully immersed in the Olympic experience and having her family see her skate. The opening ceremony is Feb. 6.
“I am going to run this [Olympic] village,” she said. “This is going to be so fun.”
She’s read about the village and watched TikToks from the Summer Games.
“But I really have no idea what the Olympic Village is going to look like. That’s why I’m so excited to get there and explore it,” she said.
Most of the ice sports, including figure skating, will be in Milan. The snow and sliding sports, plus curling, will be 250 miles away in Cortina and other mountain regions. This Olympics will be held in six villages across northern Italy.
Before nationals, Levito had a lot of obligations. There were days when film crews came into the rink and stayed all day, cutting into her training time.
The results were viral social media videos for sponsors such as Red Bull (she compares skills with a hockey player) and Everlane (she answers rapid-fire questions while getting ready to get on the ice at the Igloo Ice Rink in Mount Laurel).
Now she’s back to a more typical schedule of skating for hours every day.
“Everything’s exactly the same,” she said of her days on the ice. “What’s different, though, is how exciting it is going to the rink every day, being that I’m actually training for the Olympics right now.”
Does Olympic prep include getting a tattoo of the rings, as so many athletes do?
“I just don’t know if I would get a tattoo in general,” Levito said. “I think I’m going to start with the Olympic necklace,” which many Olympians sport.
“If I did get a tattoo, it would be in such a hidden place, and it would be so tiny and microscopic. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘If that’s the circumstances I would get a tattoo under, maybe I should think about it for a while.’”
Meanwhile, time is ticking, meaning she needs to shop for some formal dresses to wear at Olympic banquets and choose things to pack for any downtime.
Levito said she likely will bring a couple of books as well as her bedazzling kit. Besides all the sparkles she wears on the ice, she enjoys adding rhinestones to her various makeup cases and a comb.
“It’s so soothing,” she said.
Isabeau Levito skates her short program at the Grand Prix de France in October.
There is a lot of talk of extra bling: The three American women have a good chance of earning medals at the Olympics. But Levito isn’t thinking about that.
“The village is what I’m focused on,” she said. “And obviously skating my best, but I can already feel like I will.”
The pressure also is off a bit. With Glenn winning her third consecutive national title and Liu as the reigning world champion, Levito feels she’s less in the spotlight than she was a couple of years ago, when she won nationals and the silver medal at worlds.
But it’s all good.
“Honestly to me right now my life feels like perfect,” she said. “Dare I say I love everything that’s in my life, like personal life, and just like my goals that I’ve achieved, whether I’m under the radar or not?
“I’m just so happy right now. I feel like I really achieved my dream life that I had in mind maybe five or some years ago. I feel like I’m really living what I was wishing for or envisioning for myself, so I’m just beyond proud.”
On Sunday, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was named to the United States’ 2026 Winter Olympic Team headed to Italy.
The U.S. contingent was announced during Making the Team: Presented by Xfinity live on NBC and Peacock. This was the first time the figure skating team was named live on television, in the same manner as gymnastics historically is.
Levito was announced by 1960 Olympic champion Carol Heiss Jenkins before she skated last year’s beautiful Moon River short program.
Joining Levito on the team are Amber Glenn, 26, of Plano, Texas, and Alysa Liu, 20, of Oakland, Calif.
All three skated clean programs in the short and the free skate, or long program. Glenn won both segments, capturing her third straight national title.
“It was an absolutely epic evening of skating,” two-time Olympian and commentator Johnny Weir said Saturday on NBC. “Last night all three women made me believe there could be a chance for each of them to stand on that [Olympic] podium.”
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
Liu, the silver medalist, is a 2022 Olympian who retired from skating shortly after those Games. She made a big splash by returning to the ice last year, winning the world championships in her first season back.
The three are good friends, which is a change from the win-at-any-cost rivalries of the past. That era was punctuated by the 1994 Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding matchup at the U.S. Championships in Detroit, when Harding’s ex-husband plotted to have Kerrigan hit in the knee.
On Friday night, Levito and Liu watched and cheered on Glenn, the last to skate, and the three celebrated together in the kiss and cry, where skaters and their coaches wait to receive scores, after Glenn’s win was confirmed.
But this time is extra special, because Milan is the hometown of her mother, Chiara Garberi, and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. They will be able to watch her compete next month, Levito said in the news conference Friday night.
South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was announced as an Olympian on Sunday. She skated during the “Making Team USA” performance following the announcement.
Even before nationals began, the Olympic spots were Levito, Glenn, and Liu’s to lose. The three had been dominating the women’s event for the last two years, the time period U.S. Figure Skating takes into account when selecting a team.
But none gave in to the pressure.
All said they are more excited than nervous about the Olympics.
“I am just so excited and stoked about the [Olympic] village,” Levito said at Friday night’s news conference, when their spots were inevitable but not official. “I just know it’ll be the time of my life. I don’t even think I’m going to be worried about the reason I’m there for. That’s when I thrive best, when I’m distracted.”
The rest of the Olympic figure skating team includes: Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov, and Andrew Torgashev in the men’s event; Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe in the pairs event; and Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko in the ice dance event.
Pairs was the biggest question mark because two of the U.S. medalists are not U.S. citizens. They are Alisa Efimova, who won nationals with Misha Mitrofanov, and Daniil Parkman, who, with Katie McBeath, won the bronze medal. Both of those pairs were named to the teams going to the Four Continents Championships and the World Championships, which don’t require skaters to be citizens of the countries they represent.
Now it’s just a matter of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. The team going to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, won’t be announced until Sunday. But South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito did everything necessary to make the team.
Levito, 18, placed second in the free skate and third overall Friday night at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, after placing third in Wednesday night’s short program. But this was by no means any failure on her part. The top five women skated clean programs on both days.
At the end of the evening, Amber Glenn won her third consecutive national title, landing triple axels in both programs. Alysa Liu, the 2025 world champion and a two-time national champion, won silver. Two-time national champion Bradie Tennell placed fourth, which in the United States also is a medal, the pewter.
Levito, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, charmed in both of her programs, set to Italian music. Friday’s long program was a light but dramatic piece, to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone. Every note was accentuated and every toe pointed.
She opened with a triple flip-triple toe combination and moved through the program without missing a beat. She pumped her fist after she finished skating.
Isabeau Levito skates in the women’s free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
“She truly is a ballerina, but what I love most about Isabeau is that there is iron below; there is grit,” NBC commentator and 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski said. (Lipinski, like Levito, was born in Philadelphia.)
“I can’t wait to see that on Olympic ice,” added NBC’s other commentator, two-time Olympian Johnny Weir. (Weir is from Coatesville.)
In the end, Levito earned 148.73 points in the free skate and 224.45 points overall. Her overall score is a new personal best.
“I feel like [my free skate] reflected the training I put in,” Levito said in a news conference after the competition. “It was my first time competing in an Olympic year being age eligible for the Olympics.”
Levito, Glenn, and Liu are expected to be the women’s team representing the United States in Milan — which also is Levito’s mother’s hometown and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. Levito understands and speaks Italian.
Silver medalist Alysa Liu (left), gold medalist Amber Glenn, bronze medalist Isabeau Levito, and fourth-place finisher Bradie Tennell pose with their medals after the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.
Unlike other sports, the national championships are not an Olympic qualifier. It is the last of a series of events over two years that are considered in the equation that determines the team.
BalletX and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society opened the world premiere of Amy Hall Garner’s highly colorful, theatrical Petrushka Thursday night at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater.
Petrushka takes the second half of a program that opens with ensemble 132 alone in the first act, playing Bartok, Wiancko, and Mozart. So when Peter Weil (as Pete, who becomes Petrushka) wanders on stage and settles in for a nap, it is amusing already.
It’s as if a Kimmel visitor walked through the wrong door.
Now the musicians, playing the Stravinsky score — rescored for, and played by, a piano quintet, are backstage while a surreal fever dream of a scene erupts. Pete is woken up by a chorus of dancers who steal his blanket and wrap him into the traveling show that is approaching.
It’s like we went to a classical concert and a circus broke out.
BalletX dancers Peter Weil as Petrushka and Lanie Jackson as Belle in Amy Hall Garner’s “Petrushka.”
Last summer, BalletX offered a preview of Petrushka, for which choreographer-in-residence Garner teamed up with theater director Nancy Meckler and set and costume designer Emma Kingsbury. Then, it was intriguing but hard to parse.
Garner’s story is still hard to parse without reading the program notes, but it’s a wild adventure.
BalletX dancers Ashley Simpson, Itzkan Barbosa, Minori Sakita, and Lanie Jackson (back) in Amy Hall Garner’s “Petrushka.”
This is the first time BalletX has remade an older story, artistic director Christine Cox said on stage before the show.
Garner’s traveling show is an amusing cast of circus characters who are sometimes puppets, other times human. A hilarious strongman (Mathias Joubert) and a magician/impresario (Jonathan Montepara) share the role as the bad guys. Montepara controls everyone with his wand. Both Pete and the magician are in love with Belle, the ballerina (Lanie Jackson).
Jackson convinces Pete to change into a costume, thus becoming Petrushka and distracting the audience.
There are also acrobats and dancers who perform with ribbons, clubs, and hoops.
BalletX dancers are used to a variety of types of dance and roles. The company specializes in new work, so they are all flexible and able to perform in many ways. More surprising was how good they are as actors. In particular, Weil and Jackson didn’t only impress with their dancing but their strong storytelling and range of emotions.
BalletX dancers Mathis Joubert lifts Jerard Palazo in Amy Hall Garner’s “Petrushka.”
Joubert was the strongest supporting character as the egotistical strongman, breaking the fourth wall to use it as a mirror, flexing his muscles and kissing himself.
The large number of bodies on stage made for a lively scene, but it also overwhelmed the Perelman stage at times. Ensemble 132, which owned the first half, almost faded into the background in the second.
It would be interesting to see this sometime at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts, BalletX’s second home.
By the end of this week — when the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships come to a close in St. Louis — South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito will know if she has done enough to score a place on the team going to the Winter Olympics next month in Milan, Italy.
Milan is the hometown of her mother, Chiara Garberi, and where her grandmother and uncle still live. Her aunt and a cousin, who is “a very younger sister, kind of,” live about 40 minutes from Milan.
So while the Olympics are the goal for all of the top competitors, this year’s Games are especially meaningful for Levito, 18. She vacations there often and understands and speaks Italian — although would prefer not to speak it on TV.
“Or at least have a disclaimer,” joked Levito, who said her grammar is not by the book and she doesn’t know all the idioms. “‘She’s not from here. She knows Italian because her mommy is from here.’”
But Italy is the thread that has been running through her entire year.
“That was the focus,” she said.
Both of her programs are set to Italian music. The short, which she will be skating on Wednesday, is to a compilation of sassy songs from Sophia Loren movies. She will perform the free skate, or long program, on Friday, to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone.
Both pieces were suggested for her by her longtime head coach and choreographer, Yulia Kuznetsova.
“Having had me [as a student] since childbirth, she knows me so well,” said Levito, who approves all selections before programs are created.
Those include triple flip-triple toe loop combinations, a triple flip-double axel sequence, a three-jump combination, and her spins and step sequences, all with a lot of personality shining through.
The skater lives and trains in Mount Laurel. Putting together Ikea furniture for the new apartment she shares with her very fluffy cat has been her unofficial cross-training.
“I think I’m jacked from how much drilling I’ve done,” she said. “And I chose to live on the top floor and there’s no elevator, but there’s not too many floors.”
This week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be the final event for skaters to make their case to be among the three women, three men, two pairs, and three ice dance teams who can compete at the Olympics. Levito, world champion Alysa Liu, and two-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn are expected to take the women’s spots.
The Olympic team will be announced live Sunday afternoon on NBC and Peacock.
Levito looks calm when she skates, but nerves remain a real factor.
“I feel like this year, I’ve been very in tune with my body,” she said. I’ll just get intuition of ‘I should not listen to music on the bus [from the hotel to the competition rink] today.’ I kind of trust it. I’ve been very grounded. I’ve been realizing for myself that all the noise, it overwhelms much too much.”
Instead, she tries to maintain the habits she has established at home.
“When I’m at the rink and I’m practicing, I don’t really put in my earbuds and listen to music. I just do my floor warmup in silence, and then I get my skates on quickly.”
Everyone gets nervous before big events, she said, but the bright lights of the competition arena also can give her a migraine and make her vision blurry. It helps to take ibuprofen before getting on the ice.
“It’s OK, I’m weak,” she said, laughing. “I’m not exactly survival of the fittest.
“Between that and everything’s very loud [in the arena], and then everyone watching you, and it’s actually competition, and the judges are right there. It’s overwhelming, overstimulating, there’s a lot going on. So I feel like it’s very important to me that I have my solitude and my silence beforehand, rather than just shoving music into my ears and trying to escape where I actually am.”
In the end, she usually lands near or on top.
This time the stakes are exceptionally high. But even if she doesn’t win, she just needs to show the officials one more time that her next stop should be the Olympics in Milan.
How to watch
Championship women’s short program
8 p.m. Wednesday on USA Network
8:24 p.m. on Peacock
Championship women’s free skate
8 p.m. Friday on NBC10
3:57 p.m. (for the skaters who place lower in the short program) and 8:58 p.m. (for the higher-placed skaters) on Peacock.
