Following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the
International Olympic Committee suspended the Olympic Committees of Russia and Belarus. The skating federations of Russia and Belarus were each permitted to nominate one skater or team from each discipline to participate at the
Skate to Milano as a means to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics as
Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs). Each nominee was required to pass a special screening process to assess whether they had displayed support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine or had any contractual links to the Russian or Belarusian military. No pairs teams from either Russia or Belarus competed at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Daria Danilova and
Michel Tsiba of the Netherlands became the first Dutch pair skating team to qualify for the Winter Olympics. Having won both segments of the
team event,
Riku Miura and
Ryuichi Kihara of Japan were seen as the most likely candidates to win the gold. Miura and Kihara were two-time world champions and also won two silver medals in the team event at the
2022 and
2026 Winter Olympics, winning both pairs segments in the latter. At age 42,
Deanna Stellato-Dudek of Canada was the oldest woman to compete in figure skating at the Olympics. She had competed in
single skating as a teenager, winning a gold medal at the
1999 Junior Grand Prix Final and a silver medal at the
2000 World Junior Championships, before retiring in 2001 due to injury. She returned to skating as a pair skater in 2016, first with
Nathan Bartholomay and competing for the United States, and then with
Maxime Deschamps and competing for Canada. In 2024, she became the oldest woman to win a gold medal at the
World Figure Skating Championships. At the
2025 John Nicks Pairs Competition, Stellato-Dudek performed a
backflip with an assist from Deschamps. Stellato-Dudek became the first woman to perform the backflip since it became a legal element in figure skating in 2024. On 2 February,
Skate Canada announced that Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps would not compete in the team event after Stellato-Dudek suffered an injury during practice, but that no decision had been made with regards to the pairs event. She was later medically cleared to compete. After their arrival in Milan, it was later confirmed that she and Deschamps would not perform the backflip as part of their
short program. == Qualification ==