Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara pulled off tear-filled comeback to win Olympic gold

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Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara pulled off tear-filled comeback to win Olympic gold

Ryuichi Kihara looked crestfallen as he left the ice after the Olympic pairs short program Sunday, knowing his big mistake on a lift would be costly for him and his partner, Riku Miura.

The team’s coach, Bruno Marcotte, quickly tried to temper Kihara’s disappointment, which would increase when he heard the scores that put the reigning world champions from Japan in 5th place heading into Monday’s free skate.

“It’s not over,” Marcotte insisted to Kihara, then repeated. “It’s not over.”

How right he was.

And how different Kihara’s emotions were when it was over, even if someone watching without knowing the context might have wondered why he was bawling, his face contorted by the tears of joy just a few hours after he had finished crying tears of distress.

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In pairs skating, Deanna Stellato-Dudek succeeds in 10-year quest

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In pairs skating, Deanna Stellato-Dudek succeeds in 10-year quest

The results will tell you that Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada finished 14th of 19 teams in Sunday’s pairs short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The results won’t tell that just by skating, Stellato-Dudek had succeeded in what seemed an utterly quixotic quest when she began it 10 years ago, that she had realized an improbable dream that nearly became an impossible one two weeks ago.

Stellato-Dudek, of course, couldn’t see it quite that way right now. The fierce competitive fire that carried her and Deschamps to the world title two years ago won’t be entirely banked by knowing that at age 42, she had become the oldest woman to compete in Olympic figure skating since 1928 and the third oldest in history, according to Olympedia.org.

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates 'wouldn't change anything' after ice dance silver

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates 'wouldn't change anything' after ice dance silver

They had occupied the ice dance penthouse for so much of the past four seasons, including the last three World Championships, that Madison Chock and Evan Bates might as well have been declared owners of the place.

Yet when they were ready to throw a housewarming celebration in front of the world, Chock and Bates were evicted by a couple of new kids on the block, French team Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, whom they know as friends and train with at the same rink in Montreal.

So, the apparent end of the U.S. ice dancers’ stellar career did not include the individual Olympic gold medal that had been their goal since deciding they would try for a fourth Winter Games as competitive partners and a first as husband and wife.

Chock and Bates claimed silver after Wednesday’s free dance, adding an individual medal to the golds they won in the team event at both this Olympics and the last. They were a frustrated fourth in the 2022 ice dance event.

“It’s definitely a little bittersweet, because we are so, so happy with how we performed this week,” Chock said, her voice cracking as she continued the thought.

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Oh my quadg0d: Ilia Malinin crushes the Skate Canada field - and even tops himself

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Oh my quadg0d: Ilia Malinin crushes the Skate Canada field - and even tops himself


 There comes a point in the careers of some extraordinary athletes when they are competing against only themselves and the record books.

And, ipso facto, given that the athlete has to be extraordinary to face such a challenge, he or she finds it harder and harder to top past achievements.

At his best (or near it), two-time reigning world champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S. now is in that position at age 20, competing only against himself in men’s singles figure skating.

That should be clear from his winning margin over runner-up Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia in the Skate Canada Grand Prix that ended Sunday in Regina, Saskatchewan.

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Her choice of music is no accident: Bradie Tennell is on a personal mission of trying to make another Olympic team

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Her choice of music is no accident: Bradie Tennell is on a personal mission of trying to make another Olympic team

The story of Bradie Tennell’s long and decorated figure skating career has a satirically cartoonish side to it, which is something she wryly acknowledges, no matter that it has hurt like heck at times to be its protagonist.

“I have definitely felt a bit like Eeyore,” Tennell said, recalling the donkey in A.A. Milne’s Pooh stories with a perpetually aggrieved and ironically comedic view of his plight.

“They’re funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you’re having them,” Eeyore says in The House at Pooh Corner.

How true that has been for Tennell, 27, who makes her Grand Prix season debut this weekend at Skate Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For the last five seasons, it has been one thing after another for the two-time U.S. champion and 2018 Olympic team event bronze medalist.

Injuries. Boot problems. More injuries. Blade issues. Tennell kept trying to avoid having the other boot drop, because it usually hit her leg. Whether her travails were purely accidental or just the damage elite athletes incidentally do to their bodies and equipment, she had them all while trying to make another Olympic team.

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