A photo distributed from Milan on Tuesday, Feb. 17, showed China’s Zhang Ruiyang in full flight during her women’s singles free-program elements at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, a reminder that in Olympic figure skating, the work for the decisive night starts long before the final warm-up.
Zhang, a Beijing-born skater who began skating in 2015, arrived in Italy as one of the younger athletes in the field, still listed by the sport’s governing body as a high school student—an everyday detail that sits oddly alongside the bright lights of an Olympic arena.
Later that evening, the schedule moved fast. Zhang was slotted early in the short program on Feb. 17, taking the ice at 19:12 local time as part of the opening group that helped set the tone for a packed night of skating in Milan.
She did enough to extend her Games. Zhang scored 59.38 in the short program, placing 20th and earning a place in the free skate, where the standings will be remade by longer routines and higher base value.
The night’s headline, though, belonged to Japan’s Ami Nakai, who surged into the lead after the short program with a season-best 78.71, edging compatriot Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) and American Alysa Liu (76.59) in a tight front-running pack that drew the loudest reactions from a sold-out crowd.
For Zhang, the math is simpler and harsher: keep the fundamentals steady, limit costly errors, and let the free program do the heavy lifting. In an Olympic women’s event stacked with elite jumpers and proven performers, clean execution can be its own kind of momentum.
The opportunity comes quickly. The women’s free skate is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 19, with the first warm-up at 19:00 local time, and Zhang is set to skate at 19:39—an early slot that offers less time to watch the late contenders, but also fewer points of comparison to distract from her own plan.
Thursday’s segment is built for drama: a four-minute routine where athletes must manage endurance, timing, and the nerves that creep in once the second half bonus and final jumping pass approach.
Zhang’s task, then, is to turn Tuesday’s familiarity into Thursday’s conviction—bringing the same centered posture from the practice images into the competition moment, and giving China a composed performance in the segment that ultimately defines the Olympic women’s podium.
As the event pivots from the short program’s precision to the free skate’s pressure, Zhang’s Games now hinge on one extended run—four minutes to sharpen her story against the backdrop of a women’s competition that has already promised surprises.
