Japanese figure skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara clinched the gold medals in pair skating at the Winter Olympic Games held in Italy.
Following their performance in the free skate, the duo set a new world record for the free segment among pairs, achieving a score of 158.13 points, which resulted in a total tally of 213.24 points. This record previously belonged to the Russian pair Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, set at the 2022 European Championships (157.46).
Securing the second position were Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, representing Georgia and hailing originally from Vladimir and Moscow, respectively (75.46 + 146.29; 221.75 total). Finishing third were Germany’s representatives, Minerva Fabienne Hase and former Russian national team skater Nikita Vadimovich Volodin (80.01 + 139.08; 219.09 total).
Competing for Hungary, Russians Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko (73.87 + 141.39; 215.26 total) ended up in fourth place. Representing Poland, Yuliia Shchetinina from Nizhny Novgorod and Michal Wozniak (65.23 + 120.63; 185.86 total) finished thirteenth. Russians Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin (66.27 + 114.39; 180.66 total), skating under the Armenian flag, positioned themselves in fourteenth place, while the French pair, Camille Kovalev and St. Petersburg native Pavel Kovalev (64.65 + 113.78; 178.43 total), came in sixteenth.
The Olympic gold is the first for Miura and Kihara in their careers. The Japanese pair had previously earned silver medals twice in the team events at the Games, in addition to securing two World Championship titles and two World Championship silver medals.
About the Author
