MILAN — Day 1 of pairs’ figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics is in the books and two U.S. pairs sit in the top 10 after the short program.
Team gold medalists Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam are in seventh place after scoring a season-best 71.87 in their short program, and Spencer Akira Howe and Emily Chan are in ninth with a 71.06. Although Team USA boasts top contenders in nearly every figure skating discipline, it’s not necessarily the strongest in pairs. The Americans haven’t won a medal in pairs since 1988, and even though that’s drought is not expected to end here, there have been plenty of figure skating surprises throughout the Game.
The free skate is on Monday, Feb. 16, after which medals will be awarded.
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Figure skating pairs live results, updates
Here are the running scores for the pairs’ short program.
- Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (Germany): 80.01 total segment score, 43.91 technical elements score, 36.10 program components score.
- Anastasiia and Luka Berulava (Georgia): 75.46 total segement score, 41.45 technical elements score, 34.01 program components score.
- Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (Canada): 74.60 total segement score, 42.20 technical elements score, 32.40 program components score.
- Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko (Hungary): 73.87 total segement score, 41.34 technical elements score, 32.53 program components score.
- Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan): 73.11 total segment score, 38.14 technical elements score, 34.97 program components score.
- Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (China): 72.66 total segement score, 39.28 technical elements score, 33.38 program components score.
- Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea (United States): 71.87 total segement score, 38.81 technical elements score, 33.06 program components score.
- Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (Italy): 71.70 total segement score, 37.22 technical elements score, 34.48 program components score.
- Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe (United States): 71.06 total segement score, 39.00 technical elements score, 31.06 program components score.
- Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini (Italy): 69.08 total segement score, 38.29 technical elements score, 30.79 program components score.
- Anikka Hocke and Robert Kunkel (Germany): 67.52 total segement score, 37.72 technical elements score, 29.80 program components score.
- Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin (Armenia): 66.27 total segment score, 38.16 technical elements score, 28.11 program components score.
- Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby (Great Britain): 66.07 total segment score, 36.99 technical elements score, 29.08 program components score.
- Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps (Canada): 66.04 total segment score, 34.97 technical elements score, 32.07 program components score.
- Ioulia Chtchetinina and Michal Wozniak (Poland): 65.23 total segement score, 36.58 technical elements score, 28.65 program components score.
- Camille Kovalev and Pavel Kovalev (France): 64.65 total segement score, 35.99 technical elements score, 28.66 program components score.
- Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba (Netherlands): 64.07 total segment score, 36.87 technical elements score, 27.20 program components score.
- Anastasiia Gloubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (Austrialia): 60.69 total segment score, 32.85 technical elements score, 27.84 program components score.
- Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi (Japan): 59.62 total segment score, 31.46 technical elements score, 30.16 program components score.
Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam’s short program
The good times are continuing to roll for the gold medalists.After playing a critical role in Team USA’s first place finish in the team event, Kam and O’Shea were smooth in their short program. A fall doomed the short in the team event, but there were no drops in this one and they earned a season-best score of 71.87, five points better than last week.
Ilia Malinin spotted at in crowd at pairs’ short program
Two days after struggling mightily in the men’s singles free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics, American figure skater Ilia Malinin was spotted in the crowd at the first night of the pairs’ competition. Malinin, whose free skate unraveled, included two falls and landed him in eighth place, was seen sitting with Mexico’s Donovan Carrillo.
Difference between ice dance and figure skating pairs
Ice dancing does not feature jumps or lifts, like you see figure skating pairs execute. Ice dancing is made up of two segments, the rhythm dance and the free dance. Pairs comprises a short program and free skate and features jumps, spins and lifts.
Death spiral in figure skating
Viewers’ ears likely perk when they hear a figure skating move has death in its name.
The death spiral is a pairs move in which typically the male skater pivots on the toe pick of one skate and moves the other while the woman skater extends her arm to hold her partner’s and circle around him, with her head nearly touching the ice.
There are four different types of death spirals: backward outside, backward inside, the forward outside and forward insides.
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe’s short program
What a much-needed start for the American pair. Chan and Howe made the Olympics because other candidates had citizenship issues, but they proved they belong on the stage in their debut.
The short program has been a struggle for them this season, especially at nationals. But no major problems this time. Chan had a slight stumble on the throw triple loop, but everything else was smooth.
They earned a score of 70.06, guaranteeing they will get to perform the free skate.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek achieves Olympic dream
At age 42, Deanna Stellato-Dudek has finally made the Olympics.
It’s been quite the journey for the Canadian pairs skater, once a singles performer for the U.S. who was retired for 15 years. She wanted to skate again, and went into pairs. After a few years with Nathan Bartholomay, she partnered with Canadian national Maxime Deschamps and chose to represent Canada.
They were the 2024 world champions and qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics, but were in danger after she suffered a head injury during training just weeks before the Games. There was a chance they would have to withdraw, but Stellato-Dudek got cleared in time to compete.
When does pairs figure skating start?
The pairs skate their short program today, and wrap up with the free skate on Monday, Feb. 16.
What time is figure skating on TV today?
The pairs’ short program airs on USA Network at 1:30 p.m. ET. It then switches to NBC beginning at 3 p.m. ET. The entire event is streaming on Peacock.
When is women’s figure skating at Olympics?
The women take the ice for the singles competition on Feb. 17 for the short program and Feb. 19 for the free skate, after which medals will be awarded.
US pairs figure skating Olympics 2026
Team USA has two pairs competing at the Olympics: Team gold medalists Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam, as well as Spencer Akira Howe and Emily Chan.
Figure skating jump types
- Toe jump: A skater drives the toe pick of their non-takeoff foot into the ice to launch themselves into the air and generate momentum into the jump.
- Toe loop: A skater takes off backward and lands on the same back edge of their blade.
- Lutz: A skater moving backward jumps off the back outside edge of their skate and uses the toe-pick of their other skate to catapult into the air in the opposite direction and lands on the back outside edge of the picking leg.
- Flip: A skater launches off the back inside edge of one skate and lands on the back outside edge of the other skate.
- Edge jump: A skater takes off not with their toe pick but off the edge of their skate.
- Salchow: A skater launches off the back inside edge of one skate and lands on the back outside edge of their other skate.
- Axel: The only forward-facing jump, a skater lands on the back outside edge of their non-takeoff foot while traveling backward. The axel is the hardest jump because of the extra half-revolution that comes with a forward takeoff and a backward landing.
- Loop: The skater jumps off a back outside edge of their skate and lands on the same edge.
