Japanese figure skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara achieved their country's first Olympic gold medal in the pairs event at the Milan Cortina Games. Concurrently, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan won the men's singles gold medal, with American skater Ilia Malinin finishing in eighth place.
Olympic Pairs Figure Skating
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan secured the gold medal in the pairs event, marking Japan's inaugural Olympic victory in the discipline. The pair, two-time defending world champions, rose from a fifth-place standing after their short program to claim the gold.
Their free skate performance earned 158.13 points, establishing a world record under the current scoring system and contributing to a career-best overall score of 231.24 points. Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, reportedly advised them to concentrate on performing at their best rather than their initial ranking.
Following their free skate, Kihara was observed reacting to their score announcement, and the pair embraced upon confirmation of their gold medal win. Their free skate included a triple toe-double axel-double axel sequence and a throw triple loop, which concluded their program.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia earned the silver medal, securing Georgia's first medal at a Winter Games. The bronze medal was awarded to Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, who had led after the short program but experienced errors during their free skate.
Pairs Event Highlights
- Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada, the 2024 world champions, finished 11th. Stellato-Dudek fell during a lift in their short program and had a fall during their free skate warmup.
- Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe of the United States temporarily held the lead after becoming the first team in the competition to exceed 200 points.
- Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy subsequently surpassed the U.S. pair despite experiencing errors in their free skate.
- Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the defending Olympic champions, placed fifth. Sui fell on their opening triple loop in the short program and encountered additional issues in their free skate. They had returned to competition in June after a two-year retirement, with Han indicating this was his final Olympics.
Olympic Men's Singles Figure Skating
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, 21, won the men's figure skating gold medal with a career-best score of 291.58 points. He delivered a program featuring five quad jumps without reported errors.
Yuma Kagiyama of Japan earned his second consecutive Olympic silver medal, and his teammate Shun Sato secured the bronze.
Malinin's Eighth Place Finish
American skater Ilia Malinin, 21, finished in eighth place with a total score of 264.49 points. Malinin, who had held a five-point lead after the short program and had been undefeated in major competitions since 2023, experienced multiple errors during his free skate, including two falls.
His performance ended a two-year unbeaten streak across 14 competitions and resulted in his lowest total score in nearly four years.
During his free skate, Malinin opened with a quad flip, then aborted a planned quad axel. He landed a quad lutz but doubled a planned quad loop. He subsequently fell on a second quad lutz and on a planned quad salchow-triple axel combination, which he reduced to a double salchow. His free skate score was 156.33, significantly below his personal world record of 238.24 from the previous December.
Following the event, Malinin attributed his performance to overwhelming nerves, stating, "The nerves just were so overwhelming... I just did not handle it."
He also reflected on feeling prepared but potentially overconfident prior to taking the ice and experiencing a loss of control during his performance. Malinin, known as 'Quad God' for being the first and only skater to successfully execute a quadruple axel in international competition, did not complete the quadruple axel during this event.
Prior to the individual event, Malinin had shown signs of pressure, having been beaten by Kagiyama in the team event short program. He secured a win over Sato in the team free skate, which contributed to the American squad's gold in the team event. A watch party of family, friends, and supporters gathered at Malinin's training rink, SkateQuest in Virginia, to view his competition.
Overall Medal Standings
In the initial week of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, Team USA, with its contingent of 232 athletes, held third place in the Olympic medal standings. Italy and Norway were tied for the lead, both with 18 medals, with Norway possessing eight gold medals.