Riku Miura, Ryuichi Kihara Make History With Japan’s First Olympic Pairs Gold Medal

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won Japan’s first Olympic gold medal in couples skating Monday night, setting a world record for their free skate and rising from fifth place after their short program to the top of the podium at the Milan Cortina Games.

The two-time defending world champions, whose unexpected misstep on a lift the night before had them playing catch-up, collected 158.13 points in their free skate. Miura and Kihara finished with a career-high 231.24 points and their long-awaited gold medal, adding to the silver they helped the Japanese team earn last week.

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava received Georgia’s first Winter Games medal with a silver, garnering 221.75 points. Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany won bronze with 219.09.

The chaotic short program on Sunday night knocked some of the world’s greatest skaters out of contention.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Canada’s 2024 world champions, lost approximately 10 points when Stellato-Dudek unexpectedly fell while exiting a lift. She also fell hard during their warmup for the free skate on Monday night, slipping into one of the padded barriers and twisting her shoulder as she got back up.

Stellato-Dudek, 42, who was born in the Chicago area, surely had different expectations for her Olympic debut. The Canadian pair finished 11th out of 16 teams in the free skate, receiving 192.61 points.”Just to be out here and skate on the ice was a privilege and an incredible experience,” Deschamps added.

Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, a private first class in the United States Army, claimed the lead as the first team to surpass the 200-point mark. Despite a sloppy free skate, Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii easily knocked them off their perch. However, the podium contenders had only just begun to take to the ice.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the defending Olympic champions, recovered from Sui’s fall on their first triple loop in their short program, which placed them sixth. They still had problems in their free skate, changing a triple salchow into a double, but their total of 208.64 points put them in first place with five pairs remaining; they ended fifth.

It wasn’t a horrible performance considering they only started their comeback in June after a two-year retirement.

Miura and Kihara were next, and their score proved impossible to beat. They began their program with a flawless triple toe-double axel-double axel combination set to music from the “Gladiator” film series, and Miura landed with grace and elegance on their throw triple loop. And, although some teams struggled with their salchows, Miura and Kihara’s were flawless, with their throw triple loop capping off the performance.

Kihara was impassive after their short program, but he erupted in a shout when the free skate score was released. When he realized they’d won gold, he discreetly fell to his knees and hugged Miura.

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea did not have the pair of free skate they had hoped for. The U.S. team, no doubt fatigued from competing for the fourth time at the Winter Games, struggled after a great short program that had placed them seventh, finishing ninth in the pairs event to cap off their Olympic debut.

“We definitely did leave it all out there, just not in the way that I had thought that it was going to go,” Kam said. “But I’m still so proud of everything that we’ve done here. I feel like all the work that we put in at home has carried through to this competition.”

The American pairs contingent had an encouraging couple of weeks, despite missing two of their top three pairs due to citizenship concerns in Milan.

“I love skating, and skating on Olympic ice is literally a dream coming true,” O’Shea said. “This whole time that we’ve been here has been an amazing experience. It’s definitely one where we’re feeling a little tired by the end of it. But we’re very proud of the whole body of work that we put out across the time that we’ve been here.”

It’s unclear how much longer O’Shea intends to participate after turning 35 last week, while Kam turned 21 in December and is still fresh to pairs.