Winter Olympics 2026: Rock-solid Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi top pairs free skate as team Japan closes in on U.S. lead
Winter Olympics 2026: Miura/Kihara, home hopes Conti/Macii shine
Miura/Kihara were the favourites coming in, and they delivered in spades, with only a minor error from Miura on their side-by-side triple toe-loops coming with a “q” (quarter under-rotation) call from the judges.
Otherwise, they earned positives GOEs (Grades of Execution) across all 11 of their executed elements, including a silky throw triple loop towards the end of the performance.
Their previous personal best was just two months ago at the Grand Prix Final, where they clocked a 147.89. Their performance – and score – solidify their favourite status in the individual pairs event, too.
Team Georgia were precise throughout their “Le discours d’Arthur”/”Keeping Me Alive” free skate, only to suffer a fluke fall in their choreography sequence at the finish – costing them some two points on the score sheet.
“I was quite tired today; I didn’t show my maximum so far,” Berulava said via an interpreter.
Metelkina said both she and Berulava were battling small injuries since the short program, skating “with tears in our eyes” during Sunday morning’s practice session.
The Italians, too, showed their fight, with Conti still wearing a knee brace after an injury took her out of Europeans – and threatened their home Games. But after they struggled on their opening side-by-side jumps they seemed as motivated as ever, bringing the Milan crowd to a deafening roar as they finished.
Conti pumped her arms overhead as Macii hunched over on the ice, barely able to move.
“Today was tough; the free program is always difficult,” Conti said. “But I have to say that the crowd really pushed us on.”
Macii agreed: “Today, in my opinion, precisely because it wasn’t all perfect, the [crowd] came onto the rink with us, they skated with us, and they held their breath until the end of the four minutes and 10 seconds. And that’s what we felt. … o I have to say that I thank them all.”
It was the U.S. team who had opened the pairs free skate with beyond their career-best, Kam fighting through an awkward first throw triple Lutz and then being buoyed by a crowd seemingly full of American fans.
“The short program definitely had a lot of jitters; it was our first step out on Olympic ice,” Kam told reporters. “But since then, I think we felt so much more grounded and felt back to normal. We were ready to work hard for our skate today and it felt like we did that for our performance.”
Added O’Shea: “It actually felt like less pressure than you think. Our goal was to experience as much joy as we could together. I think we did our job: We got that extra point.”
