Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara win Japan's first Olympic pairs gold with a world-record free skate

MILAN — Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara thought their chances of Olympic gold had gone by the wayside when the Japanese skaters made an uncharacteristic slip-up during their short program at the Milan Cortina Games.

Turns out they were just making it more dramatic.

The two-time defending world champions rebounded Monday night with a world-record free skate under the current scoring system, lifting them from fifth place all the way to the top step of the podium and their country's first Olympic medal in the pairs event.

Miura and Kihara dropped to their knees in a tearful embrace when they realized they had won gold.

“My main message to them today was be the best in the world. Don't worry about yesterday,” said their longtime coach, Bruno Marcotte. “I told them that it wasn't over. Before they went out on the ice, I just said, ‘Be yourself.’”

They were the best version of it.

Miura and Kihara scored 158.13 points for the free skate and a career-best 231.24 overall, earning a gold medal to go with the silver they helped the Japanese team win last week. Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava earned the first medal for Georgia at a Winter Games with their silver, and Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took bronze.

“It's an amazing moment for my country,” Berulava said. “I'm in shock.”

Hase and Volodin, who led after the short program, made several mistakes in their free skate and slid to third. But rather than dwell on failing to win the gold medal, Hase chose to look at the positives: “We won an Olympic medal. It doesn't suck,” she said.

“It's a medal at the Olympics. I don't think it matters the color,” Hase added. “A bronze medal in our first Olympics is amazing.”

The chaotic short program on Sunday night had left some of the best in the world skating early and out of contention.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, the 2024 world champions from Canada, cost themselves about 10 points when she inexplicably fell while getting down from a lift. Stellato-Dudek also took a hard fall during their warmup for the free skate on Monday night, sliding into one of the padded barriers and then flexing her shoulder when she got back up.

The 42-year-old Stellato-Dudek, who was born in the Chicago area, was undoubtedly envisioning a much different Olympic debut. The Canadian pair wound up with 192.61 points, putting them 11th among the 16 teams that made the free skate.

“Just to be out here on and skating on the ice was a privilege and really amazing,” Deschamps said.

Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, a private first class in the U.S. Army, took the lead by becoming the first team to break the 200-point barrier. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy quickly knocked them from their perch despite a messy free skate.

But the podium contenders were just starting to take the ice.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the defending Olympic champions, bounced back from Sui's fall on their opening triple loop in their short program that left them in sixth place. They still had problems in their free skate, turning a triple salchow into a double, but their score of 208.64 points put in them in first place with five pairs left to go; they finished fifth.

It wasn't a bad showing by Sui and Han, given they only began a comeback last June following a two-year retirement.

“For me, this is my last Olympics,” Han said afterward.

Miura and Kihara were next up — and they produced a score that proved impossible to beat.

They were flawless on a triple toe-double axel-double axel sequence to start their program, set to music from the “Gladiator” films, while Miura landed with grace and elegance on their throw triple loop. And as other teams struggled with their salchows, Miura and Kihara's were clean, with their throw triple loop putting an exclamation mark on the program.

Kihara was emotionless after their short program, but he erupted with a roar when their free skate score was announced.

Then he quietly dropped to his knees and hugged Miura when he learned they had won gold.