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.

There is more than one way Spencer Akira Howe represents the USA. He pairs with Emily Chan in Olympic figure skating and is also in the military.

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.

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

Ilia Malinin stumbled under Olympic pressure as underdog Mikhail Shaidorov captured gold in a shocking Olympic men’s figure skating final at Milano-Cortina 2026.

Emily Chan of McKinney and Spencer Howe return to the ice 1 p.m. CT Monday.

The Sporting News is tracking the Olympics team figure skating standings throughout the 2026 tournament.

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.

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.