Australian Ice Dance duo Qualify for 2026 Winter Olympics
Bergamo, Italy – November 11, 2023 – Australians Holly Harris and Jason Chan have secured a coveted spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, qualifying in ice dance at the ISU Challenger Series event in Bergamo.
ice dancing debuted at the Olympic Games in 1976,while pairs skating-along with men’s and women’s singles-has been a fixture since 1908.
“We are just really grateful to everyone back home in Australia, everyone back home in Montreal,” Chan said. ”It’s amazing to share this experience with so many friends. I think this is a culmination of a lot of hard work and a reflection of our journey.”
The qualification event also saw strong performances from other skaters vying for Olympic spots. Russian figure skater Adeliia Petrosian emerged as a medal contender, scoring 209.63 total points for her Michael Jackson-themed short program and Argentine tango free skate, surpassing Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia (206.23) and Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx (204.96).
Competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, this marked the first international competition for Russian skaters since the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The event represents the sole possibility for Russian skaters to earn Olympic quota spots following their exclusion from the world championships in Boston in March. The ISU previously approved a list of Russian skaters for competition in Beijing, including petrosian and Alina Gorbacheva in women’s singles, and Gumennik and Vladislav Dikidzhi in men’s singles; no pairs or ice dance teams were approved. Gumennik further demonstrated his olympic potential by winning the final qualifying event with a 34-point margin.
Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania won the ice dance competition.