Amber Glenn can extend her figure skating Grand Prix win streak, Mikaela Shiffrin eyes more World Cup slalom success and speed skaters take their next steps toward Olympic qualification this weekend, all live on Peacock.
At Grand Prix Finland, two-time national champion Glenn goes for a fifth consecutive Grand Prix Series win dating to the start of last season.
She will qualify for December’s Grand Prix Final with a top-four finish this week against a field that includes world bronze medalist Mone Chiba of Japan and 2018 U.S. Olympian Bradie Tennell.
The Grand Prix Final takes the top six per discipline from the Grand Prix Series, where the world’s best skaters compete twice over the six-event regular season. This year’s Final in Japan is expected to be a mini preview of the Olympics, with the last two world champions already qualified: American Alysa Liu and Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
The Finland men’s event features 2022 Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who won his first Grand Prix and is very likely to make the Final. The last two years, Kagiyama has been the closest (albeit often distant) challenger to two-time world champion Ilia Malinin. Malinin already qualified for the Final, where he could face Kagiyama for the first time in this Grand Prix season.
Ice dance in Finland features two of the world’s top couples – Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron rank second in the world this season by best score behind Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the three-time world champions. Gilles and Poirier took silver at the last two World Championships behind Chock and Bates. All three couples are likely to gather for the first time this season at the Final.
In Alpine skiing, Shiffrin headlines this weekend’s slaloms in Gurgl, Austria. She is coming off a win in the first slalom of the season last Saturday with her largest margin of victory since December 2023. That’s after focusing more on giant slalom than slalom in preseason training.
She won nine of her last 11 World Cup slalom starts dating to January 2024, though she missed five races in that span due to injuries. With 2022 Olympic gold medalist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia not yet back from her own injuries, Shiffrin’s top challenger could be 19-year-old Lara Colturi, who placed second last Saturday. Colturi, who represents Albania, is the daughter of 2002 Olympic super-G gold medalist Daniela Ceccarelli of Italy.
The speed skating World Cup moves to Calgary for races from Friday through Sunday, live on Peacock.
Jordan Stolz, the 2023 and 2024 World champion in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m, won three of his four races across those distances at the first World Cup last week outside Salt Lake City.
He skated the second-fastest times in history in the 1000m (where he owns the world record) and the 1500m. The Utah oval produces the world’s fastest times due to its elevation.
If Stolz finishes in the top five in any of those distances in Calgary, he will meet Olympic qualifying criteria, though a spot can’t be clinched until skaters at least participate in the trials in January.
Last week, 2022 Olympic 500m gold medalist Erin Jackson lowered personal bests in the 500m (second place, American record) and 1000m (eighth place). After dealing with injuries in recent seasons, Jackson said her back felt its best in three years.
Femke Kok of the Netherlands broke the 500m world record in Utah and is due to face Jackson twice more in Calgary in duels between the reigning Olympic and world champions. Jackson will meet the same Olympic qualifying criteria as Stolz if she places in the top three in either of the 500m races in Calgary. She would still have to skate at trials to confirm the spot.
The short track World Tour wraps up with stops in Poland this week and the Netherlands next week that will decide U.S. Olympic team spots, live on Peacock each Saturday and Sunday.
Corinne Stoddard and Kristen Santos-Griswold are in strong position to return to the Games.
Stoddard finished second or third in four of the six individual World Tour races thus far. Santos-Griswold, the circuit’s No. 1 overall skater last season, placed third in two of the three races at the most recent World Tour stop after being sidelined by a back injury in late summer.
In bobsled and skeleton, the first World Cup of the season in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, this week marks the first official races on the reconstructed track that will host the 2026 Olympic competition.
World Cup results from now to January factor into how many Olympic quota spots each nation receives and U.S. Olympic team selection criteria. The events stream live on the IBSF YouTube channel.
The U.S. has three star women’s bobsled drivers in five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, three-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries and 2025 World monobob champion Kaysha Love. All are expected to compete in Cortina this week and throughout the World Cup season, looking to secure the maximum three Olympic quota spots for the U.S.
In skeleton, Mystique Ro and Austin Florian return after winning the mixed team world title last March. The event makes its Olympic debut in 2026. Ro, a former track athlete at Queens University of Charlotte, also won individual silver at worlds in Lake Placid, New York.
Finally, the first freestyle skiing World Cup of the season features men’s and women’s slopestyle finals on Saturday in Stubai, Austria, live on Peacock.
The fields include both 2022 Olympic slopestyle gold medalists – American Alex Hall and Swiss Mathilde Gremaud. Hall already made the Olympic team via world ranking. In Stubai, he faces the world’s other top skiers including reigning world champion Birk Ruud.
Eileen Gu, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in big air and halfpipe who added silver in slopestyle at her home Games, was eliminated in qualifying in Stubai.
