Ami Nakai of Japan won gold in the women’s single skating free skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, with teammate Kaori Sakamoto taking silver and Alysa Liu of the USA earning bronze.

Quick Scoop: 2026 Winter Olympics Women’s Single Free Skating

Medal results and standings

  • Gold: Ami Nakai (Japan) – came into the free skate already leading after the short program and held her nerve to secure the Olympic title.
  • Silver: Kaori Sakamoto (Japan) – delivered a strong free program that kept her firmly on the podium behind Nakai.
  • Bronze: Alysa Liu (USA) – stayed close enough in both segments to edge out other contenders and claim third overall.

The final ranking was based on the combined total of the short program and free skating scores, with the free skate carrying enough weight to reshuffle positions but not enough to unseat Nakai from first place once she skated cleanly.

How the free skate works

  • The women’s free skating program lasts about four minutes and allows skaters to pack in multiple jump passes, spins and choreographic sequences for higher scoring potential than the short program.
  • Under the current rules, skaters must include seven jump elements (including at least one Axel-type jump), three different kinds of spins, a step sequence and a choreographic sequence.
  • Each element has a base value; judges assign Grades of Execution from −5 to +5, and these are combined with program component scores (skating skills, presentation, composition) to produce the total segment score.

This means that in Milan Cortina 2026, Nakai’s technical difficulty and clean execution in the free skate, plus strong components, allowed her to protect her narrow lead from the short program and emerge as Olympic champion.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.