This is part of Slate’s 2026 Olympics coverage. Read more here. 

Are you not entertained? In my roundup of the pairs figure skating short program, I called these athletes gladiators, warriors who had to enter the arena to fight for their Olympic lives. All that, and I had forgotten that two of the top teams on the Italian ice would be skating to the Gladiator score, making the situation all the more literal. After a rousing pairs free skate that featured music ranging from Bollywood to Meat Loaf, I am giving a firm thumbs up to Monday’s proceedings in Milan.

After a rocky season where their spot on the U.S. Olympic team was seriously in doubt, Emily Chan and Spencer Howe turned in a performance that showed that they belonged. Skating to selections from Ghost: The Musical, they pulled off an emotionally resonant program that featured strong level 4 lifts, a side-by-side triple salchow, double axel, double axel sequence and a throw triple flip. Unfortunately, a fall from Chan on the side-by-side triple toe loops and a foot down on the landing of the throw triple loop prevented this skate from achieving top marks. At times, the dialogue included in the music was a bit much for my taste, and this team can sometimes veer towards overly emoting. But figure skating fandom requires the ability to give into straightforward sentiment; if you resist too hard, you’re going to pull a muscle. All in all, it was a solid seventh-place finish for a team that easily could have missed out on Milan.

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea have been beacons of positivity at these Olympic Games, sweethearts beloved by fans and commentators alike. Already gold medalists from the team event and not expected to medal here, Kam and O’Shea seemed to be taking in their Olympic moment, beaming as they took the ice. While their magnificent musicality and strong lifts were still on display, their program was riddled with costly errors. Kam stepped out of the landing of their side-by-side triple toe loops, fell on their side-by-side triple salchow, and fell again on their side-by-side triple lutz. Although she was able to pull herself together to land a throw triple loop, too many points were left on the table for a high placement, leaving Kam and O’Shea in ninth place overall.

It’s worth noting that this was Kam and O’Shea’s fourth performance on Olympic ice in the past two weeks. I question how wise it is for the team event to come before the individual ones (which frankly matter much more to the skaters). Skaters like Kam and O’Shea, Chock and Bates, and Ilia Malinin, who had to skate both programs at the team event, have been through a mental gauntlet, performing over and over again in a short span on Olympic ice. Yes, they’re physically strong enough to do it. But why are we choosing to tire out some of these athletes with a frankly more frivolous event right before the biggest skates of their lives? I don’t see the schedule changing any time soon, but I do think placing the team event second would make for a better structure, putting skaters rather than TV audiences first.

Now, for the medal contenders. In Gladiator, Russell Crowe tells us, “What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” In figure skating, what we do in the short program echoes in the free skate. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but trust me, it’s just as profound.

Reigning World Champions Riku Mihura and Ryuichi Kira of Japan were sitting in a shocking fifth place after a botched lift in their short program, needing to overcome a 6.9-point deficit to win gold. Their music—selections from the Gladiator score, naturally—suited this moment perfectly, making the stakes feel truly Olympic. Opening with a soaring triple twist and a strong side-by-side triple toe loop, double axel, double axel sequence, Miura and Kihara made it clear that the pressure was not breaking them.

I held my breath when they entered their first lift; would it go down again? But as Kihara carried Miura across the ice with great speed and confidence, I could tell there would be no repeats of the short program error. They followed their lift with a throw triple lutz so big that I was worried she would sail into the boards. After they completed their side-by-side triple salchow and throw triple loop, I was pumping my fists.

This is a team that grabs your heart without needing to mug for the camera. When they hit their final pose, Kihara couldn’t help but break into open-mouthed sobbing at center ice, letting out all the emotion he had been keeping inside. They needed a big score to have a hope at gold, and the judges rewarded them not only with a personal best but with a world record free skate score, sending them into first place. Four pairs remained. Would that score be good enough to stay at the top? Had Miura and Kihara erased Milan’s frontrunner curse?

Next to skate were Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary. It was a technically solid performance not marred by mistakes, but it did feel like it was missing something. They skated to “Without You” by Ursine Vulpine & Annaca, a sort of atmospheric indie rock piece that I don’t personally care for; it’s music that tells you what to feel rather than letting the skaters show us themselves. The Hungarians successfully completed their two side-by-side jumping passes and two triple throws and achieved level 4 on their triple twist and all their lifts. I was quite impressed with their skating; the word I underlined in my notes was technique! I feel like Pavlova and Sviatchenko need more time together and more of that unquantifiable sparkle that turns a solid skate into something transcendent. Hungary’s last Olympic medal in pairs was in 1956 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but tonight’s scores left Pavlova and Sviatchenko in fourth place, so the drought continues. While Monday night wasn’t their moment, the Hungarians are leaving us hungry for more in 2030.

Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud were in third place after the short program, a position few saw coming. Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps were expected to be the top placing Canadians at these Olympics, but a freak fall exiting a lift in the short program left them at the back of the pack. Pereira and Michaud were the second team to skate to Gladiator tonight, and you know what? I was happy to hear it again. That score absolutely slaps. Hans Zimmer had no business going that hard. But if Miura and Kihara’s performance was like Gladiator, Pereira and Michaud were more like Gladiator II, an entertaining watch filled with iffy moments that make you wish you were just watching the previous installment again.

Pereira and Michaud’s first side-by-side jump sequence was quite strong, but then the mistakes started rolling in. She stepped out on the landing of the throw triple loop, he fell on their side-by-side triple salchows, and a rare mistake on their death spiral caused it to be downgraded to the basic level. I appreciated the spectacularly difficult entrance of one of their overhead lifts, really showing off the brute strength of this team. But overall, there were too many errors to leave the Canadians in the top tier, and when everything shook out, they had fallen to eighth.

The penultimate skaters were Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, hoping to be the first Winter Olympics medalists in any sport for their country. There’s a palpable sense of drive from this team, and Metelkina has stated that she’ll never quit skating until she’s the Olympic champion. She was well on her way to that goal tonight, as the Georgians skated a long program that showed they are athletically among the best in the business. Highlights of their program included a high-flying triple twist; a triple salchow, double axel, double axel sequence with expansive ice coverage; and a throw triple loop that was massive in height. There were a few hiccups throughout—Berulava had to fight to hang on to the side-by-side triple toe loops and Metelkina stepped out of the landing of the throw triple loop.

Where this team has the most work to do is in the artistic side of the sport. Skating to pop-rock music that sounded like Imagine Dragons lite didn’t particularly suit them and while I was wowed by their technical brilliance, I wasn’t moved emotionally. As the battle-tested character Proximo says in Gladiator, “I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.” When this pair is able to win the crowd, I think that they just might win gold. But on Monday, their free skate was not enough to overtake Miura and Kihara, leaving them in second with one team to skate.

Last on the ice were Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany. After an impressive short program that had them 4.55 points above their closest competitors, the Germans had a small cushion to make errors and still win. But after Miura and Kihara threw down a world record free skate, it was clear that they would need to be near-perfect.

Skating to “Memoryhouse” by Max Richter, the Germans moved across the ice in a style that was both soft and intense. I was enraptured by their opening triple twist and thought that they were on their way to gold. Then, the mistakes started. Hase put her foot down on the third jump in their side-by-side jump sequence. And then on their next jumping pass, side-by-side triple salchows, Hase only completed a single, losing so many potential points that gold was essentially out of reach. Their attack seemed to have diminished and while they completed the rest of their elements, including two throw triple jumps, without error, it felt like they were skating not to lose. When the music ended, Hase’s grimace made it clear she knew that they’d lost out on gold.

When the judges had their say, Hase and Volodin’s score was only enough for bronze, leaving the Georgians with silver and the Japanese with gold. Vaulting from fifth place to first, Mihura and Kira proved that an error doesn’t have to break you—it can also inspire you to unprecedented greatness. Miura looked in shock at the gold medal result; they had won by almost 10 points. Kihara reacted in an opposite fashion, openly weeping in a manner that was so pure it was hard not to get misty myself. When a pairs skater lands a throw jump, they must withstand more than 6,000 pounds of force to stay vertical. After achieving their life’s dream, this pair seemed to be taking 6,000 pounds of emotion straight to the heart.

After the pairs event, I feel as if the Olympic arena has been exorcised of its demons. U.S. Figure Skating will not be appealing Chock and Bates’ second-place finish in ice dancing. Malinin has indicated he will perform in the Olympic exhibition and compete at the World Championships after his disastrous eighth-place finish in men’s singles. And after the Olympics’ other frontrunners missed out on gold, Miura and Kihara bucked that trend and set a great example for young athletes of how to use adversity as an asset. As Marcus Aurelius once stated only to be quoted centuries later in the film Gladiator, “Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear.”