By Matteo Morelli

That’s it: the Olympic season is officially on, with less than 5 months to go until the next Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy! Qualification for the Games is based on a specific system that allocations spots to countries: the first set of spots is allocated based on the final results of the previous season’s World Championships, while additional spots are allocated at a specific Qualifier event. 

Beijing, China, is hosting this year’s Qualifier, also known as Skate to Milano. The event, taking place from 18 to 21 September, will determine the final spots and provide an up-to-date view of which countries will grab the 23 available places in ice dance. Let’s look into this in more detail.

Entries allocation rules

The ice dance has a total of 23 spots. As a general rule, countries can qualify up to 3 teams, with two ways to earn Olympic spots. 

First, most spots are allocated based on the results from the 2025 World Championships, which took place in Boston, USA. Teams that qualified for the free skate earned the following:

3 entries: awarded if the top 2 placements are equal to or less than 13. Based on the final results in Boston, both the USA and Canada earned 3 spots each.

2 entries: awarded if the top two placements or total placements are equal to or less than 28. Based on the final results in Boston, the following countries earned 2 entries: Great Britain, France, Finland, and the Czech Republic. 

1 direct entry to the Olympics: awarded to countries ranked high enough among single entries within the qualifying limits of competition. Based on this, the following countries earned 1 entry: Italy, Spain, Georgia, Germany, and the Republic of Korea. 

Chance to earn 1 extra entry: award if a team finishes in the top 10 or if the total placements are equal to or less than 13. Based on this, the following countries earned a chance to compete for an extra spot in Beijing: Italy, Spain, and Georgia. 

This resulted in 19 spots already allocated from Boston, with 4 still up for grabs. The Olympic Qualifier event in Beijing will allow teams competing there claim those remaining spots, which will be granted to the highest placing teams at the event. 

It is to note that National Olympic Committees retain the authority to choose which athletes to send to the Olympic Games. Also, unlike in any other skating event, athletes must hold the nationality of the country they represent to compete at the Winter Games. This means that some countries might struggle to fill their spots, potentially resulting in additional places being released. 

This is a situation that Finland currently faces: with two entries available, one of the 2 top Finnish teams includes Yuka Orihara, who has unfortunately not yet succeeded in obtaining Finnish citizenship. As a result, she and her partner, Juho Pirinen, will not be allowed to compete at the Winter Games. This leaves the Finnish Olympic Committee to decide what to do regarding that entry: they may choose to wait and hope that Orihara obtains citizenship, allocate the spot to another Finnish team, or eventually return it for reallocation to another country. 

They will have until the end of January to decide, which means that we may not know until quite close to the Winter Games whether Finland will retain and send 2 entries, or whether an extra spot will be available and allocated based on the results from the event in Beijing.

The competition in Beijing

19 teams will be facing each other to end in the top positions and grab the available spots, giving their countries a chance to be represented in the ice dance competitions in Milano. 

As mentioned, Italy, Spain and Georgia will have a chance to earn a second entry for their countries.  Giulia Isabella Paolino and Andrea Tuba recently won the Italian Winter Olympic Games Qualifier, an internal event that determined who would compete in Beijing. They also participated in Lombardia Trophy but withdrew after the rhythm dance. Sofia Val and Asaf Kazimov will do all they can to join Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck, especially now that it has been confirmed that both Dieck and Azimov have been granted Spanish citizenship. Maria Kazakova and Vladislav Kasinskij will attempt to earn that second spot available for Georgia, after debuting as a new team at Lombardia Trophy, where they finished in 9th place.

Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius are probably the team most likely to finish in the top postions in Beijing. After a costly mistake in their rhythm dance at Worlds costed them the qualification for the free, and therefore an Olympic entry, they will be determined to help Lithuania earn a spot. This would allow Reed, who recently became a Lithuanian citizen, and partner Ambrulevičius to attend the Olympic Games together (this would be Ambrulevičius’ first Olympics, while Reed previously competed at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada). 

The Lithuanian team won silver at the Bolero Cup event in Sheffield, UK, a couple of week ago, showing they are ready to fight for the Olympic spot. Australia’s Holly Harris and Jason Chan won bronze in Sheffield, and are also in Beijing aiming to qualify for the Winter Games. 

Other teams in potential contention for the top spots are: Ireland’s Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus, which are hoping to continue making history for Ireland, after becoming the first Irish team to compete at the European and World Championship; Hungary’s Mariia Ignateva and Danijil Szemko, and Ukraine’s Mariia Pinchuk and Mykyta Pogorielov, who finished 6th and 11th respectively at Lombardia Trophy; Japan’s Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita Japan, which placed 6th at Kinoshita Cup; and Sweden’s Milla Ruud Reitan and Nikolaj Majorov.

Note that, although skaters from Russia and Belarus are allowed to compete at the Winter Olympic Games as Individual Neutral Athletes, no ice dance team entries from either country received ISU approval to compete at the Beijing Qualifier. 

Streaming 

The Figure Skating Qualifier 2025 will be broadcasted around the world on the official ISU YouTube Channel, with the exception of the following countries:

Japan: TV Asahi

Ukraine: Suspilne (Formerly UA:PBC)

France: France TV

Netherlands: VTM

Germany: ORF 

China: CCTV

The rhythm dance starts on Friday, 19 September, from 12:15 to 14:55 (CST), while the free dance is planned for Sunday, 21 September, from 10:00 to 13:10 (CST).