The pairs figure skating short program at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics delivered drama, disappointment, and a dash of history on Sunday night, as Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin soared to a personal best and a commanding lead, while Japan’s reigning world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara stumbled to a surprising fifth place. With the free skate looming on Monday, the stage is set for a high-stakes battle that could reshape Olympic pairs skating lore.
Expectations ran high for Miura and Kihara, who entered the competition as favorites, having clinched back-to-back world titles and powered Japan to a silver medal in the team event earlier in the Games. But the pressure of Olympic gold proved formidable. Skating at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, the Japanese duo started strong, executing their triple twist and toe jumps with precision. Then came the pivotal Axel lasso lift—an element they could perform in their sleep—where disaster struck. Miura slipped awkwardly off Kihara’s shoulders, resulting in a Level 2 credit instead of the planned Level 4 and a stinging minus-2.30 deduction for grade of execution. Their final tally: 73.11 points, a full 6.90 points behind the German leaders and well off their season-best mark of 82.84 set in the team short program.
"A big mistake happened but we were still able to get more than 70 points and will just have to try and do our best tomorrow," Kihara reflected after the skate, visibly disappointed but determined. Miura added, "I haven’t watched the footage so I can’t say for sure what went wrong with the lift, but it didn’t go the way we always do it. We will just have to try to not make any mistakes tomorrow." Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, offered encouragement, telling Kihara, “It’s not over,” as the pair left the ice. Still, the gap to the podium is daunting—closer to 12th than to first, as some observers noted.
Meanwhile, Hase and Volodin seized their Olympic moment. The German pair, reigning world silver medalists, delivered a flawless routine highlighted by a clean triple twist, solid side-by-side jumps, and a throw triple loop that drew cheers from the crowd. Their score of 80.01 shattered their previous personal best and gave them the largest margin after an Olympic short program since the current judging system debuted in 2004. “Our goal was to go out there and feel like we do in practice,” Hase said after the program. “So we tried to do that. After the program, we were happy that everything worked out. I’m just happy that the first time we did 80, that was a little dream of mine, and I'm just happy about that one as well.” Volodin echoed her sentiments, emphasizing their focus on execution rather than placement.
The German duo’s achievement is all the more impressive considering the storied history of pairs skating. Germany has often been a force in the discipline, winning the first Olympic pairs gold in 1908 and claiming frequent medals since. Their last Olympic figure skating medal came in 2018, and now, with a 4.55-point cushion, Hase and Volodin have a real shot at ending that drought. “It doesn't matter who is in front of us, behind us, how much points we have. We just have to do our job and then after we can see where we placed,” Hase insisted, keeping her focus on the task ahead.
The rest of the field is tightly bunched. Georgian champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava delivered a strong skate for 75.46 points and second place, despite a minor error on a triple flip throw. “I’m happy that the short program is over,” Metelkina said. “Overall, I think the skate was much better today than in the team event. We made one mistake on the throw, but this is quite a stable element for us otherwise, so I think everything will be good in the free and there shouldn’t be any problems.” Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud surprised many with a personal best 74.60 for third, their emotional performance marked by competitive maturity. Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko are in fourth after their own personal best, while the difference between second and fifth is just 2.35 points—leaving the door open for a shake-up in the free skate.
Not all favorites fared well. The 2024 world champions, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada, suffered a fluke fall after a lift and finished 14th, a stunning result for a pair considered a dark horse for the podium. Stellato-Dudek called it a "complete surprise," explaining, "It has never even happened in practice." Deschamps struck a hopeful note: "It's a new day tomorrow. We'll just go out there again tomorrow, skate together as a team, and enjoy that experience." The United States’ top pairs, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, placed seventh and ninth respectively, still seeking the country’s first Olympic pairs medal since 1988.
For Miura and Kihara, the path to redemption is narrow. Kihara admitted, “We haven’t watched film yet but we have to regroup tomorrow and do the absolute best we can. That’s all we can do. I’m not sure what happened, but it is what it is. We have to think positive. But it’s not like we’re in bad form so tomorrow, we hope to be our usual selves. We’ll be back. I guarantee that.” Miura added, “Our nerves were fine. Our twists, jumps, we nailed all our other elements, so we just have to make sure we don’t make a similar mistake [Monday].”
The short program’s results have upended the narrative of this Olympic pairs event. For decades, Japan was an afterthought in pairs skating, rarely cracking the top dozen at the Games. Miura and Kihara’s rise to the top of the world in 2023 and 2024 marked a seismic shift in the discipline, but Sunday’s setback is a reminder of the sport’s unforgiving nature—one mistake in seven required elements can be devastating. The Germans, Canadians, and Georgians are all now in strong medal contention, while the Japanese must summon their championship mettle for one final push.
The pairs free skate, scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m. ET, will see sixteen pairs compete with a four-minute program featuring three lifts, a twist, two throws, solo and combination jumps, a pair spin, a death spiral, and a choreographic sequence. With the top five teams separated by less than seven points, every element will count. Fans can catch the action live on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, USA Network, and NBC.
As the world’s best pairs prepare for the free skate, all eyes are on whether Hase and Volodin can turn their dream debut into Olympic gold, or if Miura and Kihara can stage a comeback for the ages. One thing’s certain: the race for the podium is far from over, and Milan’s ice has plenty more stories to tell.