On a high-stakes Sunday evening in Milan, the U.S. figure skating pair of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea delivered the performance of their careers, helping to keep Team USA atop the leaderboard in the Olympic team event at the 2026 Winter Games. The pressure was on, the stakes couldn’t have been higher, and Kam and O’Shea answered the call with a season-best free skate that had fans, commentators, and teammates buzzing.
The Olympic team competition is a unique event, combining the efforts of each country’s best in men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, and ice dance. With medals on the line and the U.S. holding a slim lead over Japan, every point mattered. Kam, 21, and O’Shea, 34, have been skating together for four years, training out of Colorado Springs, and their bond was put to the test after a challenging start to the Games. Just two days earlier, a fall on the throw triple loop in the short program left them in fifth place, a full 1.3 points behind third, and their confidence shaken.
As NBC’s Terry Gannon noted before they took the ice, “The U.S. with a five-point lead, but [pairs] is not their strong suit.” Yet Kam and O’Shea were determined to flip the script. They opened their free skate with a triple twist lift, earning instant praise from commentator Tara Lipinski: “Beautiful start there with that triple twist.” The pressure was palpable—after all, as Johnny Weir pointed out, “The most difficult element for this team is the throws,” referencing their struggles in practice and the earlier fall. But under the bright Olympic lights, Kam and O’Shea executed a clean side-by-side triple salchow-double axel combination, setting the tone for what was to come.
The music—an energetic medley featuring “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics, “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears—matched their determination. The crowd watched with bated breath as Kam landed the throw triple lutz, followed by the very throw triple loop that had cost them in the short program. Lipinski’s excitement was clear: “I haven’t seen them skate this well in a long time.” Weir, too, couldn’t hold back: “This is their chance at an Olympic medal, and they’re skating like they’re hungry for gold.”
O’Shea’s strength as a lifter became a highlight, with Weir calling their lifts “spectacular” and Lipinski adding, “He is one of the best lifters in the world.” The program’s planned elements read like a checklist of technical mastery: triple twist lift, triple toeloop, triple salchow-double axel-double axel sequence, throw triple lutz, backward outside death spiral, throw triple loop, group 5 reverse lasso lift, pair combination spin, group 4 lift, choreography sequence, and a group 5 axel lasso lift. Every element was executed with precision and flair, culminating in a performance that brought the crowd to its feet.
“Forget about meeting expectations, they just exceeded them,” Gannon declared as the program ended. Lipinski took it even further: “I haven’t seen them skate like that ever… they were unstoppable.” Weir summed it up: “That was the most fantastic skate I’ve seen from them, absolutely stunning from start to finish.”
The judges agreed, awarding Kam and O’Shea 135.36 points—a personal and season-best for the pair. According to USA Today, this score was enough to secure fourth place in the pairs segment, just 1.3 points behind the third-place finishers, and a dramatic improvement from their earlier fifth place in the short program. More importantly, their effort kept Team USA ahead of Japan in the overall standings, a razor-thin margin with two events left to decide the medals.
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara delivered their own career-best performance, scoring a massive 155.55 points and cutting what had been a five-point American lead down to just two. The U.S. held 51 points to Japan’s 49, while Italy sat in third with 45. With the women’s and men’s free skates still to come, the gold was far from decided.
Kam and O’Shea’s redemption arc was a story in itself. After the fall in the short program, they faced doubters and their own nerves. O’Shea even fell on an individual jump during the six-minute warm-up, and Kam stumbled on a throw, but when it mattered most, they locked in. As Kam reflected after their skate, “We felt like we were finally working together again, the nerves were gone…we were able to just lock in and focus on us as a team.” O’Shea’s emotion was unmistakable: “It means everything, those moments that you’ve dreamed of since you were a little kid…we know the team is counting on us to get some points today, so I’m just overwhelmed with emotion. Pure joy today.”
Their performance was a vital boost for the U.S. team, which has been led by strong showings from Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dance, Alysa Liu and Amber Glenn in women’s singles, and Ilia Malinin in men’s singles. Glenn, a three-time reigning national champion, was set to make her Olympic debut in the women’s free skate, while Malinin, the reigning world champion known for his jaw-dropping backflip, was slated to close out the team competition in the men’s free skate. The final day’s schedule was packed, with the pairs free skate kicking things off at 1:30 p.m. EST, followed by the women’s and men’s events. The entire three-day contest was building to a dramatic finish, with every skate, spin, and jump under the microscope.
For Kam and O’Shea, the journey from disappointment to triumph was a testament to resilience and teamwork. Their four years together have been marked by steady progress, but never had they delivered under such pressure. Their coach and teammates watched from rinkside, visibly relieved and elated as the scores flashed across the screen. The U.S. fans in the stands erupted, sensing that the gold was still within reach.
With two events remaining, the U.S. team’s fate hung in the balance. The competition was fierce, the atmosphere electric, and the margin for error virtually nonexistent. Kam and O’Shea had done their part—now it was up to Glenn and Malinin to finish the job.
As the night wound down at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, one thing was clear: Kam and O’Shea’s free skate wasn’t just a comeback. It was a defining Olympic moment, the kind that inspires future generations and reminds everyone why the Games matter. The team event was still undecided, but for Kam, O’Shea, and Team USA, hope and momentum were alive and well.