On the heels of the high-pressure and heartstopping individual program, The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games is set to debut its pairs figure skating short program at 1:30 p.m. ET inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
The event will be divided into two halves, and the 19 competitive pairs will be divided into five groups. Groups one and two will kick off the first half event from 1:45-3:10 p.m. ET, and groups three, four and five will compete in the second half of the event from 3-5 p.m. ET.
Notable appearances will be from Team Japan top contenders Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Team USA newcomers Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, and Team Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek, who is able to become the oldest figure skating medalist at age 42.
In the past two Olympic Games, the pairs figure skating gold medal has narrowed down to less than a single point, and we’re here to provide live performance and leaderboard updates throughout the event.
Where to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics‘ figure skating events — 2:00 p.m. ET
As of Feb. 15, there are still the pairs short program and free skate, as well as the women’s short program and free skate.
Viewers can watch all of these events via Peacock or on nbcolympics.com. Below are the exact times of the program, via U.S. Figure Skating’s Instagram.
Armenia and China set the stage in Group One — 2:06 p.m. ET
Team Armenia’s Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin took the ice first, and scored a 66.28 to set the gold standard for teams to follow.
After being away from competition for more than four years, 2022 Olympic gold medalists China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong returned to the ice.
The Chinese pair has competed together for 16 years, and Wenjing fought through a right hip injury to carry through the routine and scored a 72.66 to take the lead over Armenia.
Australia fails to finish group one on the same beat — 2:10 p.m. ET
Rounding out the program’s first group was Team Australia’s Anastasiia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore in their Olympic debut.
The pair performed well-executed tricks like the backward inside death spiral, but after their step sequence four, the pair lost synchronization and finished at different times.
What required elements must each Olympic pair perform? — 2:17 p.m. ET
After the first group steps off the ice, new viewers may notice the patterns and sequences of each team seem relatively similar to each other.
In the short program, each team must compete for two minutes and 40 seconds, and each pair must perform these required elements:
- Triple or double twist
- Triple or double throw
- Side-by-side triple of double jump
- Side-by-side spin
- Backward inside death spiral
- Step sequence
Second group takes the ice for warm ups — 2:25 p.m. ET
The second of five groups has taken the ice for warm ups. The performance order is as follows:
- Camille Kovalev / Pavel Kovalev (FRA)
- Emily Chan / Spencer Howe (USA)
- Daria Danilova / Michel Tsiba (NED)
- Yuna Nagaoka / Sumitada Moriguchi (JPN)
Here are the scores that the second group needs to beat for a chance at the podium — 2:33 p.m. ET
Below is the official leaderboard after the first group’s performances in the pairs short program:
- 1. Wenjing Sui / Cong Han (CHN) — 72.66
- 2. Karina Akopova (ARM) — 66.27
- 3. Anastasiia Golubeva / Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (AUS) — 60.69
Who are Team USA’s Emily Chan and Spencer Howe? — 2:40 p.m. ET
As they make their Olympic debut as part of the second group of the pairs short program, Texas’ Emily Chan and California’s Spencer Howe are stepping onto the grandest ice of them all.
Chan, 28, and Howe, 29, turned heads at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, where their stunning pairs free skate performance brought them up from eighth overall to fourth overall and earned them a spot on the Olympic team.
Howe, who practices with Chan at the Skating Club of Boston, is the first member of the US Army’s World Class Athlete Program to make an Olympic team in figure skating.
The pair has been together for seven years, and joined forces with coaches Aleksey Letov and Olga Ganicheva in 2020 to achieve national stardom.
The pair punched their Olympic ticket after two pairs who ranked above them faced citizenship issues.
USA’s Emily Chan and Spencer Howe perform — 2:48 p.m. ET
Team USA’s Emily Chan and Spencer Howe took the ice for their Olympic debut, performing to “NYAH” by CH2.
With a score of 70.06 points, the American pair advanced to the free skate program.
Japan’s Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi fall under 60 points — 2:55 p.m. ET
One of the youngest pairs in the short program, Japan’s Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi, rounded out the second group — but not without two catastrophic falls during their performance.
At age 20 and 24, the pair made their Olympic debut, and finished with a score of , which placed them in last place at the end of the program’s first half.
Japan’s other pair, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, are considered top challengers for the overall podium, along with Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, and Germany’s Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin.
Leaderboard update after second group — 3:00 p.m. ET
Here are the scores that the third group will be up against:
- Wenjing Sui / Cong Han (CHN) — 72.66
- Emily Chan / Spencer Howe (USA) — 70.06
- Karina Akopova / Nikita Rakhmanin (ARM) — 66.27
- Camille Kovalev / Pavel Kovalev (FRA) — 64.65
- Daria Danilova / Michel Tsiba (NED) — 64.07
- Anastasiia Golubeva / Hektor Giotopoulous Moore (AUS) — 60.69
- Yuna Nagaoka / Sumitada Moriguchi (JPN) — 59.62
The bottom three teams at the end of the program will be eliminated from competition, and the top 16 will move forward to the free skate event.
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