At the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Japanese figure skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara staged a dramatic comeback from fifth place in the short program to win gold. They set a world-record free skate score, totaling 231.24 points for Japan's first Olympic medal in pairs figure skating.
In the pairs figure skating event at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara secured gold with a stunning comeback. After an uncharacteristic error in the short program left them in fifth place, they delivered a flawless free skate, scoring a world-record 158.13 points under the current system for a total of 231.24—their career best. This victory marks Japan's first Olympic medal in the pairs discipline, adding to the silver they helped win in the team event last week.
Their longtime coach, Bruno Marcotte, said, “My main message to them today was be the best in the world. Don’t worry about yesterday.” Before their performance, he added, “It wasn’t over... Be yourself.” The pair, two-time defending world champions, dropped to their knees in tears upon realizing their win.
Silver went to Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, the country's first Winter Olympics medal. Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin took bronze after leading post-short program but faltering in the free skate. Hase remarked, “We won an Olympic medal. It doesn’t suck,” and added, “A bronze medal in our first Olympics is amazing.”
The short program on Sunday was chaotic: Canada's 2024 world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps lost points from a lift fall and finished 11th overall. China's defending Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, returning from a two-year retirement, placed fifth despite issues. The U.S. pair Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe briefly led by breaking 200 points but ended out of the medals.
Miura and Kihara's free skate to music from the “Gladiator” films featured clean triple toe-double axel-double axel sequences and elegant throw jumps, proving unbeatable.
