For Japanese pair, Skate America silver medal is a joyous (and rare) surprise
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Ryuichi Kihara, Riku Miura and coach Bruno Marcotte after free skate that would win silver. (Getty Images)
In the 32 years since the redoubtable Midori Ito became Japan’s first world figure skating champion, her country has become one of the most decorated in the sport.
All the greatest success has been in singles, climaxed by Yuzuru Hanyu’s consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018.
That background is why the silver medalists were the story in the Skate America pairs’ event Saturday night in Las Vegas.
With their second personal best score in two days, skating with an exuberance and joy that delighted the crowd, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara became the first Japanese team to win a medal on the Grand Prix circuit in 10 years, equaling the silver won by Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran at the NHK Trophy in 2011.
“We weren’t really hoping or aiming for a medal,” Miura said. “We just wanted to show what we were doing in training. We’re obviously surprised we came in second.”
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