Winter Olympics: Japan triumph in mistake-laden pairs skating event

The pairs figure skating event at Milano Cortina was a highly anticipated one for fans of the sport.

There were several contenders for the podium, including Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, reigning World Champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, and Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, this year’s world silver medalists and European champions.

Other teams of interest were Team GB’s Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby, five-time British national champions, the Italian team of Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, skating on home ice in Milan, and Team USA’s Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea.

The team represented Georgia’s first hope for a Winter Olympics medal in sporting history

The short program opened the event. Team GB had a strong showing, and qualified for the free skate. Their synchronicity, especially on the combination spins, was praised by both the commentators and the judges.

Kam and O’Shea were watched closely by fans of Team USA. Their inclusion in this Olympics was somewhat unusual, as they only came second in the US Nationals, and qualified due to visa problems with the first place couple. Despite the late Olympics call-up, their clean, artistic program and characteristic perfect triple twist certainly proved any doubters wrong.

Italy’s Conti and Macii also skated their dramatic program clean and were well-received by the crowd, both Italian and otherwise. The pair went viral last year for their gender-swapped program at the 2025 World Championship gala set to Beyoncé’s ‘Who Run the World’.

All eyes were on Georgia’s team as they took the ice. The duo represented Georgia’s first hope for a Winter Olympics medal in sporting history.

Their short program was set to music from Bolero, popularised by Torvill and Dean’s gold medal performance in 1984. The melody has since become something of a ‘warhorse’ in figure skating, used multiple times by many skaters. Befitting this music, their program was very dramatic and elegant, skated entirely clean save a step out on their throw triple flip, putting them into second after the short, and in the running for a medal.

Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin were hoping to repeat their medal success, and delivered with a beautiful, clean program that put them into first going into the free skate.

The favourites for the gold were Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara. However, their short program almost put paid to those hopes entirely with an uncharacteristic error on their lift. Kihara struggled to get his partner into the air, so rather than sailing into first as everyone had been expecting, the pair instead went into the free skate in fifth.

Mistakes continued to haunt the teams throughout their 4-minute free programs

Team GB had a strong showing in the free skate, with a beautiful side-by-side triple toeloop, and a clean triple twist despite errors on the throw triple loop and double axel sequence.

Mistakes continued to haunt the teams throughout their 4-minute free programs. Conti and Macii, skating to popular Italian songs that got loud approval from the home crowd, received negative marks after stepping out of their jump sequence and both throws, but seemed happy with their performance, and the opportunity to represent their country on home ice.

Team USA’s Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea unfortunately weren’t as happy, after falling on nearly every element in the opening half of their program, but got positive marks on their spins and lifts.

Similarly, Germany’s Hase and Volodin had mistakes on their elements, shaky on several of their lifts and throws, knocking them down from first place after the short to third place overall.

Both the skaters and their entire coaching team dissolved into tears of joy when the results revealed they had won the gold

The other medal hopefuls had a better time.

Georgia’s Metelkina and Berulava delivered the medal their country had been hoping for, coming in second place with a mostly clean and artistic program.

Kihara and Miura from Japan needed the skate of their lives to get back into the medal positions after the heartbreak of their short program, and they certainly delivered. Their perfect program, skated to music from ‘Gladiator,’ was textbook, and had artistry scores through the roof. It was so well done that they received a standing ovation from the crowd, and both the skaters and their entire coaching team dissolved into tears of joy when the results revealed they had won the gold.

Like all of the other skating disciplines at this year’s Winter Olympics, the podium athletes showed incredible sportsmanship, with all of them immediately congratulating each other and seeming genuinely pleased for their rivals’ successes.