2026 Olympic Winter Games

Minerva Hase & Nikita Volodin Take Lead in Pairs Short Program

(16 February 2026)  As in the Ice Dance and Men's events before them, the favorites in the Pairs event failed to take the top spot in the short program, turning the free skate tomorrow into a nearly anything is possible showdown.

Germany’s Minerva Hase & Nikita Volodin, last to skate, had one of the few clean performaces to take the lead in the event by 4.55 points.  The 80.01 points they scored was a new personal best, and the first time they achieved 80+ points.

The 2026 ISU European Champions from Georgia, Anastasiia Metelkina & Luka Berulava place second, while Canadians Lia Pereira & Trennt Michaud ended up a surprising third place.  Their clean performance in the short followed two strong performances in the team competition.

Skating last, Hase & Volodin skate a solid routine that outscored the field in both element points an component points.

“We went out on to the ice and wanted that it just feels like a practice and to tune out the Olympics, the stress and everything,” Hase said.  “It was just another run-through, this is how we went out on to the ice. 

“We did our job and we are very happy about the first part, but we’re saving the big emotions for later.”

Metelkina & Berulava put out a strong performance to “Bolero.”  Metelkina, however, stepped out of throw triple flip, costing them a few points at least, though even without the error they likely would have still placed second. Their performance was scored at 75.46 points.

“I am happy that we are in medal position following the Short Program but I am a maximalist and therefore, I am not satisfied that I made a mistake on an element that is one of the most consistent for me,” Metelkina said. "I am grateful for the support of my partner and absolutely happy with how he skated today,” she added

Pereira & Michaud gave a solid performance to “Say You Love Me” and achieved a new personal best of 74.60 points. This was well above the 68.24 points they scored in the Team competition short program.

"We're very proud. We've put in so much work, and we feel like we've been here for a long time as well,” Pereira said. “After being pretty content with the short program of the team event, we still came out wanting more."

The current ISU European bronze medalists from Hungary, Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko, finished fourth with a clean performance to “Earth Song” and with 73.87 points, a new personal best, are still in the running to make the poium. 

“We are super happy,” Pavlova said. “The atmosphere was amazing. The crowd was crazy, cheering for us, and the flags were there — they came out for us. That made us very proud. This was one of the most incredible programs and competitions for us.”

The favorites entering the Games, current World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara from Japan, had a broken lift that collapsed at the end. The error cost them several points. With 73.11 points in the short, they remain in the running for a medal, though the Gold now may prove difficult to achieve.

"Lifts are completely about timing and that unspoken connection between us,” Miura said, “so if it's even slightly off, this is what happens. I think some of it was also bad luck. However, because of this mistake, we want to approach tomorrow even more carefully, step by step, with our minds cleared."

The team looked somber while speaking with journalists after the event.

The 2022 Olympic Champions Wenjing Sui & Cong Han, from China, displayed many of their former skills, but Sui has been struggling with jumps and throws during their comeback season.  In the short program Sui stumbled on their side-by-side triple toe loops.  They are sitting in sixth place with 72.66 points.

Following a practice accident whose nature was kept secret, 2024 World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps of Canada did not participate in the Team competition, and did not arrive in Milan until earlier this week. The assumption has been this was a head injury, and it was only recently confirmed that was the case - though said not to have been a concussion.  In the interest of safety, the team chose to leave their pairs backflip out of the program.

In addition to a hand down and turn out of side-by-side triple loop by Dechamps, the team had a fall on their lift element.  Dechamps set his partner down cleanly, but they were too close to the wall, the team drifted together and their feet collided as Dechamps swept back his left leg for the exit from the lift, causing Stellato-Dudek to go flying, hitting the ice and boards hard.  The Canadians ended the short program in 14th place with 66.04 points.

Americans Ellie Kam & Danny O'Shea placed seventh while Emily Chan & Spencer Howe placed ninth.

Italians Sara Conti & Niccolo Macii, who placed third in both the short program and free skate in the Team competition placed eighth in the individual short program.