The pathway from athlete to Olympian is as individual as a snowflake — no two are the same.
 
To the outsider, the journey from a recreational athlete to competing on the grandest of stages may seem like a fever dream, but for most, it is replete with challenges that defy what the viewer sees on competition ice. Such is the case with Olympians Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, whose specific road to Milano Cortina was filled with potholes, obstacles, and, since they train in Boston, the requisite construction.

 
Chan and Howe teamed up in 2019, both with pairs experience under their belts, but known more for the successes of their respective singles careers. Chan was the 2016 U.S. junior women's champion, while Howe had a budding career on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, eventually culminating with a sixth-place finish at the 2015 U.S. Championships as a junior.
 
In their first season together, Chan and Howe finished fifth at the U.S. Championships and followed that up by capturing the pewter medal a year later. Alternates for the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, the pair began to make a name for themselves internationally when they captured the silver medal at the 2022 Four Continents Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.
 
As the new Olympic cycle began, Chan and Howe seemed destined for greatness — a silver medal at the 2023 U.S. Championships was followed up with a fifth-place finish at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan. Soon after, however, Chan and Howe began taking injury-related detours that impacted their ability to train with any level of consistency.
 
Howe was sidelined after undergoing surgery to correct a labral tear in his right shoulder, postponing the start of their 2023-24 season until the U.S. Championships. A year later, Chan was benched with a severe concussion that impacted the pre-Olympic season.
 
"This season was the first where we've been able to stay really healthy and be able to take care of the small stuff relatively quickly," Chan said. "We were able to continue our training, which has definitely been a big gamechanger this season."
 
Howe has the added complexity of fulfilling obligations to the Army World Class Athlete Program, which supports Olympic hopefuls with multifaceted resources while the athlete gives back to his country.
 
"I am a private second class," he shared. "My duty right now is skating, so I have been able to shift away from the mentality that skating is my job and is instead, my duty."
 
Their Grand Prix season was promising — finishing in sixth at the NHK Trophy and in fourth a week later at Skate America. With a handful of teams competing for just two berths on the Olympic Team, it seemed as if Chan and Howe might have the upper hand in taking one of those invitations at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.
 
As fate would have it, however, Chan and Howe's short program was nothing short of a disaster as the duo notched three falls in their routine and finished in eighth place.
 
"The period after the short program became a great opportunity for Emily and me to cling to our faith and recognize that we have a job to do," Howe said. "We set a goal for the free skate and agreed that we would continue to move forward regardless of the outcome."
 
Skating in the first group in the free skate — hours before the top two groups would skate live on NBC, Chan and Howe knew the challenge that was set before them. Eight points out of second place, the duo knew that they would have to put out a strong performance to have a shot at making the Olympic team. Despite a couple of small errors, the Boston-trained team fought for every point in their program and sat in first place at the end of their group.
 
"It was definitely an unusual experience for us to have to wait as long as we did for the final results," Howe shared. "We actually watched the last two groups, and I was more nervous watching the other athletes than I was during our own program."
 
Nearly five hours later, Chan and Howe learned that they would finish in a hard-fought fourth place in the competition, and with two teams ahead of them lacking the requisite citizenship requirements, they were still in the conversation for an invitation to represent Team USA in Italy. Two days later, they got the news that they were on the team.
 
"We're just grateful to be here right now," Howe said. "It's an amazing experience and filled with so many different emotions, but truly humbled and just grateful is the right word for it."
 
As they prepared for their Olympic debut, Chan and Howe understood the assignment — to leave no point on the table as they take competitive ice in Milano. That means focusing on achieving the highest levels and ensuring that all the small details are major priorities.
 
"We feel trained and ready, and I think that homing in and paying attention to those small details and then relying on all the training that we've done this entire season," Chan said. "Focusing on putting those two things together will give us the biggest score that we can achieve."
 
But at the core of their expectation is to soak in everything that the Olympic experience has long been about — a global celebration that brings the world together as one through sport.
 
"It's already been a great honor that we will be able to call ourselves Olympians, and to do that while representing The Skating Club of Boston just adds to that," Howe said. "Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir coach here, so they've been sharing some of the traditions from their time in Sochi. Emily and I are looking forward to seeing what traditions arise at the Games in Milan.
 
"I'm definitely super stoked to open up all those suitcases of gear," he said. "You see the stuff on TV and in museums, so it's crazy that I'll have Olympic swag of my own. Not many people get that experience, so I'm just excited to absorb it."I don't think it's even set in yet and probably won't until I'm at home in March with Olympic gear in my closet."

For the full competition schedule, television schedule, bios, news and more, visit the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Competition Central.