The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games are nearly at a close, and amid the medal ceremonies and crash outs, the celebrations and commiserations, something in the figure skating events has felt different.
Hugs on practice sessions, high-fives after strong performances, cheering for competitors’ personal best scores — the athletes in the Milano Ice Skating Arena seem to be more than just rivals: they seem to be friends.
The most overt example of this is, of course, the self-monikered “Blade Angels,” the trio of U.S. women’s figure skaters who have been outspoken about their genuine friendship.
“I just adore these two ladies,” reigning U.S. champion Amber Glenn said in January of her two closest competitors, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. “I've seen them grow up since being little children, and to see them here as incredible women is probably one of the most wonderful experiences I've had in skating.”
Liu, who came out on top of the three with gold in Milan, also only had positive things to say of her rivals.
“I love Isabeau's wittiness. Truly, she's the funniest person I've ever met,” Liu said. “And then Amber, she has so much love, and I love that.”
But the good vibes seem to go beyond the three stunningly well-adjusted U.S. women.
South Korea’s Cha Jun-Hwan was spotted running up to the leader’s chair to comfort Mikhail Shaidorov, who was overwhelmed with emotion as he realized he’d won an Olympic medal. Then Ilia Malinin stopped to congratulate the emotional Shaidorov, minutes after the worst skate of Malinin’s life had lost him an all-but-assured Olympic title.
This past week we’ve seen the camera pan to find Malinin sitting with skaters from other countries, cheering on other figure skating events, making Tik Toks with them, and generally looking like any regular 21-year-old hanging out with his friends.
After decades of icy stares and tepid handshakes, when competition was seen only as the zero-sum game of gold medals or bust, these athletes make it look like the sport is experiencing a dramatic cultural shift.
In a 2024 interview with the TODAY Show, 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and two-time U.S. champion Gracie Gold described the atmosphere that left her isolated when struggling in her competitive years. "I still love skating, but it was how I coped with everything around it, and some parts of the culture and some people in the sport that I think need to change and be a little more progressive," she said.
Glenn, who at 26 remembers the overall lack of support in those years, said she is thrilled that her teammates don’t understand why the press keep calling their friendship unusual.
“They obviously are much younger than I am,” Glenn said of Liu, 20, and Levito, 18. “So, they don't quite know what the atmosphere might have been like before. Not that it was all bad, but there was definitely some — intensity.”
It’s hard to say exactly what instigated the change. Athletes like Glenn and her Japanese counterpart, Kaori Sakamoto, are preternaturally positive individuals. Both older athletes in their field, and both at the top of it, they set the tone for the younger skaters that look up to them. This was perhaps most notable when, in 2025, the three-time world champion Sakamoto found herself unseated by a totally stunned Liu. Sakamoto didn’t miss a beat, giving Liu a huge hug, jumping up and down with her, joyfully celebrating the success that meant her failure.
Another explanation of the camaraderie of the world’s elite figure skaters points to the team events that have given skaters not only more opportunity to compete, but more opportunity to view their success as collective.
The inaugural World Team Trophy event — a biannual competition in which the nations with the top athletes across all four skating disciplines compete for points as national teams — was in 2009. A version of the event then had its Olympic debut in 2014. It’s taken some time for athletes to take the event seriously, but heading into these Games many of the contenders indicated just how much the event mattered.
“The team event is extremely important to us,” Evan Bates said in the days before it kicked off in Milan. “Having the opportunity to compete as a team is so special, and this team in particular is so talented.”
That respect is born of shared experiences, whether at the team event, performing in shows together, or attending annual training camps. Although many of the figure skaters within the U.S. train far apart from one another, those opportunities give athletes time to bond with the tiny percentage of people who can best relate to them.
“Getting to skate with you guys is really rare for me,” Liu said to the other “Blade Angels” after the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. “Back at home, there's not really many people at my level, and I'm always really grateful coming to these competitions because I get to see what crazy things y'all do.”
With the sport shifting away from an emphasis on quadruple jumps and toward an array of athletically complex movements on the ice, skaters have learned to be inspired by one another’s creativity, making it so much more enjoyable to pursue.
It also makes it more enjoyable to watch, and that’s a goal for many of the top athletes today. Malinin has shared in multiple interviews how much he wants to bring figure skating back to its ‘90s glory days.
“I really want figure skating to be big and popular like it was decades ago,” he said. “Huge stadiums sold out. Tons of shows. On every news platform — that’s what I want skating to be brought back to.”
When viewed as a whole like this, their teamwork starts to make a lot more sense: The athletes train hard to be competitive on the ice, but work together to elevate the sport’s image while off it.
“I just think that we are all trying to lift each other up,” Glenn said. “I think it's just all about that, and doing it in a healthy way, and that's the future of our sport.”