US figure skating pairs Olympic drought continues

MILAN — Despite a strong showing, the U.S. medal drought in pairs figure skating continues.

Team USA fell short at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Monday, Feb. 16. The teams of Spencer Akira Howe and Emily Chan, and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, were knocked off the podium before the competition ended. Howe and Chan finished in seventh, with Kam and O’Shea at ninth.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan won gold in come-from-behind fashion with an excellent free skate for the country’s first pairs medal. Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia won silver, and bronze went to the German team of Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin.

The last time the U.S. won a medal in pairs remains 1988, when Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard won bronze in Calgary. The 38-year drought is the longest between medals for any figure skating discipline in U.S. Olympic history.

Neither pair was expected to be contending for a medal, but they both came out with a bang in the short program, including Kam and O’Shea riding the momentum of their team event gold to earn a season-best score.

That placed them within striking distance going into the free skate. Kam and O’Shea were in seventh place – less than three points out of third – while Chan and Howe were less than five points back in ninth place.

Chan and Howe were the first U.S. pair to go in what was their strongest part of the competition, and the score reflected it. Despite Chan falling early in the program, they powered right through the deduction and executed everything the rest of the way. The pair got a season-best score of 130.25 for a total score of 200.31.

‘We’re so stoked that we could do two strong performances and finish our Olympic Games competition as we did,’ Howe said. ‘We work so hard to get to this stage, and then once you make it, it’s kind of like your brain doesn’t know how to process that.’

Unfortunately for Kam and O’Shea, they weren’t able to replicate the magic from the team event. Kam had back-to-back falls early in program that spoiled the momentum, earning a score of 122.71 for a final tally of 194.58.

The pair won’t be leaving Milano empty-handed with their team event gold medals the highlight of the trip.

‘Definitely did leave it all out there, just not in the way that I had thought that it was gonna go,’ Kam said. ‘But I’m still so proud of everything that we’ve done here. I feel like all the work that we put in at home has carried through to this competition.’

Still, it’s a promising outing that continues the upward trajectory in the U.S. pairs’ division. When Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier finished fifth in the 2022 Winter Olympics, it was the first top five finish for Team USA since 2002. Coupled with the eighth-place finish from Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, it was the first time the U.S. had two top-10 pairs since 1998.

Now, with both teams finishing in top 10, it’s the first time the U.S. has had it happen in back-to-back Winter Olympics since 1998 and 2002. Instead of regressing, the pairs are trending. That explains why both teams were all smiles afterward, feeling like they each accomplished great things in their own ways in their respective Olympic debuts.

‘What’s not to be positive about, right?’ a smiling O’Shea said.

Team USA has had so-so performances in figure skating ever since it won team gold to kick off the festivities in Milano Cortina, not winning another title since. Madison Chock and Evan Bates controversially settled for silver in the ice dance, and Ilia Malinin’s stunning collapse in the men’s resulted in no medal.

Now the final group to go will be the women, which will feature the ‘Blade Angels’ in Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. They are all medal contenders, with the chance to win gold, something Team USA needs since it was the favorites in three of the four disciplines.