Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took a sizable lead in the Olympic pairs figure skating short program in Milano-Cortina, topping a tightly contested field ahead of Monday’s free skate.

Figure skating fans are not happy with the Olympic ice quality that saw over a dozen men fall during the free skate finale.

Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, the defending world champions, are the gold-medal favorites. They topped the standings in both the pairs short and free skate portions of the team event. Kam and O’Shea finished in fifth and fourth, respectively, and earned a personal-best score in the free skate.

The American pair will not challenge the curious scoring of a judge in the ice dance competition

Ilia Malinin missed out on a medal in a stunning and dramatic men's figure skating final at the Winter Olympics today. The 21-year-old American fell twice in his final free skate to score 156.33 and finish eighth as Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan won gold.

One of these pairs has already made history, in that Kam and O'Shea have a nearly 14-year age difference, which makes them the team with the largest age gap for any U.S. pair to have competed at worlds since at least 1990, according to NBC News research.

The 2026 Winter Olympics continue on Wednesday, February 11, as USA figure skating aims to continue finding its way onto the podium after winning gold in the team overall competition. On Wednesday, the married ice dancing team of Madison