THE LIKELY CHAMPIONS OF ICE DANCE AND MEN’S EVENTS SET TO BE RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES; LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN
Key Takeaways:
- Ilia Malinin is must-see talent; looks to clinch fourth straight U.S. title
- Ice Dance Team of Chock and Bates set to make history
- Limited tickets remain for Saturday night session
ST. LOUIS – Jan. 10, 2026 – Ilia Malinin isn’t just breaking records, he’s setting the bar so high no one is sure who in the world can ever reach the heights he is reaching. The leader (by 26 points) in the men’s category at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Malinin is every bit the superstar skater bending the laws of physics that he was hyped to be, and well on his way to a fourth consecutive U.S. Championship. Malinin dazzled the crowd at Enterprise Center Thursday night with an all-time personal best short program score of 115.10. In second place after the men’s short program is Tomoki Hiwatashi, who scored an excellent 89.26, followed by Jason Brown’s 88.49, good enough for third place after Thursday’s short program.
Of his otherworldly performance, Malinin credited the atmosphere inside Enterprise Center for driving him to push himself even further. “This environment was so incredible,” Malinin said. “They were so pumped up, so fired up. I felt the support from every single person in the stands. They really helped me get through my program; that was so meaningful for me and I’m sure for all the athletes. It was such a good experience and I’m looking forward to that again.”
Malinin skates his long program (free skate) Saturday night, which should add even more points to his total score for the event, pushing him toward a potential new record high score in U.S. men’s skating history.
In the ice dance competition, Madison Chock and Evan Bates are comfortably ahead after their rhythm dance program on Thursday, scoring a 91.70, ahead of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (85.98) and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (83.29).
If Chock and Bates lock up the U.S. title on Saturday as they are expected to do, it would give them a record seventh ice dance U.S. championship, surpassing Meryl Davis and Charlie White for the most in the event’s history.
Tickets Going Fast
Limited tickets remain for the Saturday night session at Enterprise Center, which will include both Chock and Bates skating in the ice dance finale, and Malinin in the culmination of the men’s competition. The evening session begins at 6 p.m. Saturday. More information on the schedule and tickets can be found at skatestlouis2026.com.
Stuffie Mania!
As is tradition in figure skating, fans often throw stuffed animals on the ice after a figure skating performance to show their admiration for the skaters. The “stuffies” thrown on the ice are collected by local ice sweeper volunteers (young skaters from regional skating clubs who were selected to do this prestigious job during the event) and after the skaters have chosen their 1-2 favorites to take as a memento, the rest are left to be donated by the local organizing committee.
The St. Louis Sports Commission has partnered with Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition, Ronald McDonald House Charities St. Louis, and Saint Louis Crisis Nursery as beneficiaries of the hundreds of stuffies that were showered onto the ice at Enterprise Center during the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, giving the stuffies a worthy “forever home”.
For a first-hand view of a sweeper picking up stuffies, check out this GoPro video courtesy of U.S. Figure Skating.
Media with questions about covering the event should contact Tim Ryan at tryan@stlsports.org or by phone at (314) 406-5791.
The 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships is hosted by the St. Louis Sports Commission.
The St. Louis Sports Commission is the privately funded nonprofit organization that grows, strengthens, and moves St. Louis forward through sports. The organization uses the power of sports to enhance the area’s quality of life and generate economic and social benefit for the St. Louis region.