What to know about figure skating, a cornerstone of the Winter Olympics

Figure skating has long been a cornerstone of the Olympics, pre-dating the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 with appearances at the Summer Games in 1908 and 1920. The program has changed over the years, and now includes men's and women's competitions, the pairs event and ice dance, along with a team competition that combines all of the disciplines. Here's what to know about figure skating at the Milan Cortina Games.

In the singles and pairs events, each skater or team performs a short program and free skate, which is a longer program that contains more elements. For each program, they receive a technical score based on the values of those elements and their execution, and a component score, which judges such things as skating skills and performance. The technical and component score are added together for each program, and the short program and free skate scores are added together to determine the overall medals.

The ice dance competition operates similarly, only instead of a short program each team does a rhythm dance based around a theme determined by the International Skating Union. This season's theme is “music, dance styles and feeling of the 1990s.”

The U.S. is coming off a dominant world championships in Boston in March last year in which Ilia Malinin won the men's title, Alysa Liu won the women's gold medal, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates defended their ice dance championship. All will be favored to win gold in Italy, with Malinin the overwhelming favorite to follow up compatriot Nathan Chen's gold medal from the Beijing Games.

The women's and pairs competitions will be wide open, though, with the Japanese the biggest threats to Liu and U.S. teammate Amber Glenn, both of whom have gold-medal aspirations. There is no clear favorite in the pairs event.

Figure skating will take place at the Unipol Forum, though it will be called the Milan Ice Skating Arena during the Olympics. Built in 1988, the arena will host short-track speed-skating along with figure skating during the Winter Games.

The competition begins Feb. 6 and runs nearly every day through Feb. 19, when the women’s free skate wraps up competition. The traditional exhibition gala is schedule for Feb. 21.

Figure skating at the Olympics has been filled with highs and lows, on the ice and off. Famous names such as Sonja Henie, Dick Button, Peggy Fleming and Katarina Witt have become synonymous with the Winter Games, while more recent stars Yuzuru Hanyu, Tara Lipinski and Yuna Kim have left their indelible mark. But the sport also has generated plenty of controversy, from the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding assault leading up to the 1994 Games, to the scoring scandal in pairs at the 2002 Games, or the doping case of Russian teen Kamila Valieva four years ago in Beijing.

The singles and pairs events have been contested at every Winter Games since 1972, while ice dance was added in 1976 and the team event introduced in 2014.

The U.S. has won the most gold medals (17) and overall medals (54) in figure skating. Russia is second in gold medals with 14 while Canada is second in overall medals with 29.

In 2022, the ISU voted to raise the minimum age for skating in the Olympics to 17, citing “the physical and mental health and emotional well-being of the skaters.”

Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada hold the record for most Olympic medals with five, three gold and two silver. Sonja Henie of Norway, Irina Rodnina of the Soviet Union and Gilles Grafström of Sweden share the record for golds with Virtue and Moir with three apiece.

The U.S. has not won a pairs medal since Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard in 1988.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

FILE - Kaori Sakamoto, of Japan, competes in the women's free skating segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

FILE - Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, compete in the ice dance's rhythm dance segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

FILE - Yuma Kagiyama, of Japan, competes in the men's short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

FILE - Amber Glenn, of the United States, competes in the women's short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, central Japan, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Protesters confronted federal officers Thursday in Minneapolis the day after a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

The demonstrations came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump's administration dispatched 2,000 officers and agents to Minnesota for its latest immigration crackdown.

The killing of 37-year-old Renee Good on Wednesday set off a clash between federal and state officials over whether the shooting appeared justified and whether a Minnesota law enforcement agency had jurisdiction to investigate.

Here's what is known about the shooting:

The woman was shot in her SUV in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Videos taken by bystanders and posted online show an officer approaching a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.

The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the officer gets struck by the SUV, which speeds into two cars parked on a curb before stopping.

It’s also not clear what happened in the lead-up to the shooting.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the SUV was part of a group of protesters that had been harassing agents and “impeding operations” that morning. She said agents had freed one of their vehicles that was stuck in snow and were leaving the area when the confrontation and shooting occurred.

No video has emerged to corroborate Noem’s account. Bystander video from the shooting scene shows a sobbing woman who says the person shot was her wife. That woman hasn’t spoken publicly to give her version of events.

Good died of gunshot wounds to the head.

A U.S. citizen born in Colorado, Good described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom." Her ex-husband said Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home when she encountered ICE agents on a residential street.

He said Good and her current partner moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Missouri.

Good's killing is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.

Noem said Thursday that there would be a federal investigation into the shooting, though she again called the woman’s actions “domestic terrorism.”

“This vehicle was used to hit this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon, and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy."

Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and referred to Good's death as "a tragedy of her own making.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters Wednesday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had watched videos of the shooting that show it was avoidable.

Noem has not publicly identified the officer who shot Good. But she spoke of an incident last June in which the same officer was injured when he was dragged by another driver’s fleeing vehicle. A Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Court records from that case identify the officer who was dragged and injured as Jonathan Ross.

Court documents say Ross got his arm stuck in a vehicle’s window as a driver fled arrest in Bloomington, Minnesota. The officer was dragged 100 yards (91 meters) and cuts to his arm required 50 stitches.

Drew Evans, head of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Thursday that federal authorities have denied the state agency access to evidence in the case, barring the state from investigating the shooting alongside the FBI.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded that state investigators be given a role, telling reporters that residents would otherwise have a difficulty accepting the findings of federal law enforcement.

“And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem," Walz said.

Noem denied that Minnesota authorities were being shut out, saying: “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation."

Dozens of protesters Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis federal building being used a base for the immigration crackdown. Border Patrol officers fired tear gas and doused demonstrators with pepper spray to push them back from the gate.

Area schools were closed as a safety precaution.

Protests were also planned across the U.S. in cities including New York, New Orleans and Seattle.

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a motorist earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

People participate in a protest and vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)