MILAN, Italy — Japan celebrated a historic moment in figure skating Tuesday as Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara claimed the country’s first Olympic pairs gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
The duo, known in Japan as “Rikuryu,” staged a stunning comeback, moving from fifth place after the short program to first with personal best scores in the long program. Their victory marked Japan’s first Olympic medal in pairs figure skating.
“This triumph is a result of the completeness of their performance, their high technical skill, the expressive power born from their harmony, and above all the bond of trust between the two,” government spokesman Minoru Kihara said, adding that the achievement “opens a new chapter in the history of Japanese figure skating.”
Trailing overnight after errors in their short program, Miura and Kihara turned things around to top the podium ahead of Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who took silver, and Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, who earned bronze.
American gymnastics legend Simone Biles, present at the arena, described their performance as “pretty sure that was perfection.”