Maia and Alex Shibutani are making a stunning return to competitive figure skating.
The ‘Shib Sibs’ announced Thursday morning that they will be back in competition next season ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, returning to the sport more than seven years after they last skated for Team USA. Maia Shibutani, now 30, and Alex Shibutani, now 34, stepped away from figure skating after winning Olympic bronze in ice dance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
‘Our experiences and the new skills we’ve developed during our time away from competition have brought us different perspectives and created some exciting new possibilities,’ Alex Shibutani said in a news release. ‘We don’t take any of this for granted. We’re really enjoying the process and look forward to performing and competing together again.’
The Shibutani siblings are among the most prominent ice dancing teams in U.S. history. After making their senior world championships debut in 2011, they went on to win three world medals, two national titles and two Olympic medals − in the ice dance and team events at the 2018 Games. They were inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2023, which was their first year of eligibility.
While the Shibutanis never formally announced their retirement, they were thought to be done after the 2018 Winter Olympics. Following those Games, they declined to compete at the 2018 world championships and said they would be taking a year off. Maia Shibutani then had surgery in late 2019 to remove a tumor from one of her kidneys, which was found to be cancerous.
As she recovered, the siblings began to shift their focus to other endeavors, writing four children’s books and trying new roles in choreography, photography and other creative lanes.
‘These past seven years have challenged and inspired us in ways we never expected,’ Maia Shibutani said in a statement. ‘I’m so happy and grateful to be healthy and in a position to make the decision to return to the sport I love in this way.’
The Shibutanis announced they will be training with two of their longtime coaches, Marina Zoueva and Massimo Scali − presumably with hopes of making it back to the Olympic Games for a third time. They finished ninth at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The ‘Shib Sibs’ will join a competitive U.S. ice dancing field that had one of its best ever performances at the most recent world figure skating championships in Boston, led by Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who won their third consecutive title. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko finished just off the podium in fifth, followed by Caroline Green and Michael Parsons in ninth. Only three U.S. ice dance teams will compete in Milan.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.