2026 Olympics: Gala Exhibition

[Arigato]

Actually, it was the pair team who won the Team Gold for USA. Ilia was clearly supposed to won both his events and in the end, lost one point in the SP. The pair team overperformed in their FS and won one more point than expected. Without this extra point, even with Illia winning the FS, USA and Japan would have had the same number of points, and Japan would have won the Gold medal based on the tie-break rules.

I can't find a source that doesn't say after Ilia skated, the US had 69 and Japan had 68.

 

[Ziotic]

I can't find a source that doesn't say after Ilia skated, the US had 69 and Japan had 68.

Correct, but had it been 1JPN and 2USA then the point would have been tied and JPN would have won the tiebreaker

 

[NewLook]

Gumennik is the most handsome skater since Brian with the coolest EX that no one else has. It's just stupid not to invite him.
Malinin is a current WC. It's normal that he is on the list.

 

[niks]

I can't find a source that doesn't say after Ilia skated, the US had 69 and Japan had 68.

Of course but that's the whole point: that winning point of 69 vs 68 came from the pairs team, not from Illia.

So USA won Team Gold thanks to the pairs team (and C/B) and in spite of Illia underperforming and losing the SP, not due to Illia as was claimed in the post I originally replied to. It is just a matter of giving credit where credit is due, and just because the pairs team is not as well-known as Illia, their accomplishments should not be diminished and, even worse, transferred to someone else.

And btw, I've seen that the pairs team is not invited to the Gala. So, as it was rather obvious, Gala invitations have nothing to do with the Team Gold

 

[el henry]

Another missed opportunity due to concentration on medals.

The best men's gala skater.

Donovan Carrillo

Oh well....

 

[Arigato]

Of course but that's the whole point: that winning point of 69 vs 68 came from the pairs team, not from Illia.

So USA won Team Gold thanks to the pairs team (and C/B) and in spite of Illia underperforming and losing the SP, not due to Illia as was claimed in the post I originally replied to. It is just a matter of giving credit where credit is due, and just because the pairs team is not as well-known as Illia, their accomplishments should not be diminished and, even worse, transferred to someone else.

And btw, I've seen that the pairs team is not invited to the Gala. So, as it was rather obvious, Gala invitations have nothing to do with the Team Gold

I agree with you that no one should get credit that is due someone else. It's one of my pet peeves, actually. I just don't understand the team event scoring/rules it seems. I didn't watch the pairs for the team event and that may be throwing me off as to what was the score when and how etc.

 

[NewLook]

So USA won Team Gold thanks to the pairs team (and C/B) and in spite of Illia underperforming and losing the SP, not due to Illia as was claimed in the post I originally replied to. It is just a matter of giving credit where credit is due, and just because the pairs team is not as well-known as Illia, their accomplishments should not be diminished and, even worse, transferred to someone else.

If for example US pair didn't win over Canadians in FS, then who would be blamed for losing Team gold, pair or Malinin?
Oh, you people...

 

[TallyT]

Gumennik is the most handsome skater since Brian

I wouldn't go anywhere near that far but he is one of the handsomest of the current crop (with Jun and Donovan entering the chat right now) and knows how to pick costumes that suit his Byronic-Hero-In-A-YA-Bodice-Ripper looks (and as you can tell, I love it to death). However - and I say this even as him in my icon's fan - they are not supposed to pick invitees on looks.

with the coolest EX that no one else has.

I dunno, most people online talking about the gala are screaming because we might get the Panda.

Malinin is a current WC. It's normal that he is on the list.

Malinin is a Draw for NBC and the US market, even with what happened. To be honest, I was way less surprised by his inclusion than that anyone doubted he would be invited. But to be fair, we all have skaters we desperately want to be in the gala, and if they all got the nod it would go on for three days (me, I want them to drag Elladj out of the audience because he always did the coolest ones.)

 

[4everchan]

Well well well... At galas, they often invited the top 4-5 and then a couple more special performers.

Ilia is still a world champion with exciting moves that please the crowds.

He is also an olympic champion.

I mean they invited Adam. Adam is neither a world champion nor an olympic medalist. He placed below the top 5 like Ilia. However, like Ilia, he is an extremely popular skater at shows. So it makes sense they would invite him as well.

I don't see why the big fuss about inviting someone who is extremely popular with a large audience. As mentioned, I am not going to watch the gala unless I have nothing else to do , but from what I have seen, the selection is not only logical but extremely predictable. There is nobody on the roster that is a real surprise here. Seriously. Not sure why there is such a talk about inviting Malinin or anyone else on the lists provided so far. I also fail to notice people who should have been invited and weren't.

 

[EVAMARIA]

I was hoping they would invite Gumennik not due to his good looks but to his cool exhibition program. It's very entertaining and different. I do see the problem when popular skaters didn't end in top 5 and had to be invited but still...
Perhaps there should be a new hashtag #pleaseinvitegumenniktothe gala

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Of course but that's the whole point: that winning point of 69 vs 68 came from the pairs team, not from Illia.

So USA won Team Gold thanks to the pairs team (and C/B) and in spite of Illia underperforming and losing the SP, not due to Illia as was claimed in the post I originally replied to. It is just a matter of giving credit where credit is due, and just because the pairs team is not as well-known as Illia, their accomplishments should not be diminished and, even worse, transferred to someone else.

And btw, I've seen that the pairs team is not invited to the Gala. So, as it was rather obvious, Gala invitations have nothing to do with the Team Gold

Actually it's the Technical Panel and the judges who ought to skate in the Gala representing the Team Event?

 

[ladyjane]

Actually, it was the pair team who won the Team Gold for USA. Ilia was clearly supposed to won both his events and in the end, he underperformed, losing one point in the SP. The pair team overperformed in their FS and won one more point than expected. Without this extra point, even with Illia winning the FS, USA and Japan would have had the same number of points, and Japan would have won the Gold medal based on the tie-break rules.

True, my bad.

 

[lariko]

Well well well... At galas, they often invited the top 4-5 and then a couple more special performers.

Ilia is still a world champion with exciting moves that please the crowds.

He is also an olympic champion.

I mean they invited Adam. Adam is neither a world champion nor an olympic medalist. He placed below the top 5 like Ilia. However, like Ilia, he is an extremely popular skater at shows. So it makes sense they would invite him as well.

I don't see why the big fuss about inviting someone who is extremely popular with a large audience. As mentioned, I am not going to watch the gala unless I have nothing else to do , but from what I have seen, the selection is not only logical but extremely predictable. There is nobody on the roster that is a real surprise here. Seriously. Not sure why there is such a talk about inviting Malinin or anyone else on the lists provided so far. I also fail to notice people who should have been invited and weren't.

I agree, top 4 is basically the rule. Plus, it is super common to invite home country skaters and the front runners who didn't perform well. I still for some reason thought they will likely omitt P/S in favor of S-D/D, since S-D/D had more accomplishments and were in the promo material for ISU a whole lot. Also, surprised it's R/A, not F/G in dance.

 

[4everchan]

I agree, top 4 is basically the rule. Plus, it is super common to invite home country skaters and the front runners who didn't perform well. I still for some reason thought they will likely omitt P/S in favor of S-D/D, since S-D/D had more accomplishments and were in the promo material for ISU a whole lot. Also, surprised it's R/A, not F/G in dance.

S-D/D. aren't doing shows and not even sure about Worlds. So they may have declined.

 

[NanaPat]

So they invited top 4 plus selected others. That's fairly common, as is top 5 plus selected others.

Here it is interesting to note who was "skipped over" for the selected others.

Pairs
5 - Sui/Han CHN

Dance
5 - Zingas/Kolesnik USA
7 - Fear/Gibson GBR
8 - Loporeva/Brissaud FRA

men
5 - Gogolev CAN
6 - Gumennik AIN

The men and Z/K are lesser-known skaters. Sui and Han may have declined. The most surprising for me was skipping F/G and L/B to include Smart and Dieck.

Let the arguments about the passed-over skaters begin!

 

[TontoK]

Actually it's the Technical Panel and the judges who ought to skate in the Gala representing the Team Event?

I was thinking a similar thing, only about the French ice dancers. For the first time, the gala will include a trio... the noxious twosome and the French judge performing together to the Jane's Addiction classic "Been Caught Stealing."

 

[dorispulaski]

I am a bit surprised about F&G in dance being left out. However last I looked they were still doing the Rocky exhibition they have been doing for some time- it is stale by now. Maybe that's why they were not asked? Or they declined...?

 

[TontoK]

I am a bit surprised about F&G in dance being left out. However last I looked they were still doing the Rocky exhibition they have been doing for some time- it is stale by now. Maybe that's why they were not asked? Or they declined...?

They are crowd pleasers, so I'm a bit surprised, too.

Just because I've soured on them, I bet the gala audience would like them quite a lot.

 

[SmileHappy34]

I thought it was strange on the NBC Olympic tv listing website that it stated that Ilia Malilnin and Amber Glenn are scheduled to perform at the exhibition when the competition hasn't finished yet. I could understand having Ilia scheduled to perform, since he's pretty much a shoo-in for a medal. But, there is no guarantee that Amber will perform well, unless the placements don't matter to determine if a skater is to perform at the gala.

I thought could be due to team gold

 

[TallyT]

So now we wait for the women to be announced? First four (and that includes the whole Japanese team, how cool is that?), any guesses on who else?