Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea falter
in the free skate but underscore a bright future for US pairs
[February 17, 2026]
By DAVE SKRETTA
MILAN (AP) — Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea did not have the kind of
pairs free skate they envisioned at the Olympics.
At least the Americans have that team gold medal to console them.
No doubt exhausted by performing for the fourth time at the Winter
Games, the U.S. team struggled after a strong short program that had
put them in seventh place, bringing their Olympic debut to a close
with a ninth-place finish in the pairs event on Monday night.
Their teammates, Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, finished two spots
better in seventh.
“We definitely did leave it all out there, just not in the way that
I had thought that it was going to go,” Kam said. “But I’m still so
proud of everything that we’ve done here. I feel like all the work
that we put in at home has carried through to this competition.”
It was an encouraging couple of weeks for the American pairs
contingent, which didn't even have two of its top three pairs in
Milan because of citizenship issues. The Finnish-born Alisa Efimova
and Misha Mitrofanov, the reigning U.S. champion pair, had hoped
until the last minute that she would get her passport, but the
government failed to come through for her.
Katie McBeath and Russian-born Daniil Parkman also were unable to
compete in Milan because he is not yet a U.S. citizen.
But the other two pairs delivered: Kam and O'Shea put together two
strong skates in the team event to help the Americans defend their
gold medal, while Chan and Howe briefly spent time in the leader's
chair Monday night after a strong free skate.
“I love skating, and skating on Olympic ice is literally a dream
coming true,” O'Shea said. “This whole time that we’ve been here has
been an amazing experience. It’s definitely one where we’re feeling
a little tired by the end of it. But we’re very proud of the whole
body of work that we put out across the time that we’ve been here.”
The U.S. has been good and at times dominant in figure skating's
other three disciplines.
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Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea of the United States react to their
scores after competing during the pairs figure skating long program
at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026.
(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
In the men's event, Nathan Chen and Evan Lysacek
have given the Americans gold medals at two of the past five Winter
Games, and Ilia Malinin is the two-time reigning world champ. In the
women's event, Alysa Liu is the current world champ. In ice dance,
Madison Chock and Evan Bates have won three straight world titles
and just won the Olympic silver medal.
Yet for some reason, the Americans have struggled for generations in
pairs.
They haven't had an Olympic medalist since Jill Watson and Peter
Oppegard at the 1988 Calgary Games, and that was bronze. Kitty and
Peter Carruthers won silver four years earlier at Sarajevo, but the
U.S. still has never won gold.
But there are signs that the U.S. is on the rise.
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won the world title in 2022, the
first for an American team since Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in
1979. That came after their seventh-place finish at the Beijing
Games, the best for the U.S. since 2006 in Turin.
It's unclear how much longer O'Shea plans to compete after turning
35 last week, but Kam turned 21 in December and is still relatively
new to pairs. Then there is the 26-year-old Efimova and 28-year-old
Mitrofanov, who could be medal contenders by 2030.
The pair have been on an upward trajectory since getting together
three years ago, and they would have been the top U.S. team had her
American citizenship come through. They are seventh among all world
pairs teams when ranked by their best this season.
“There are so many great teams in the U.S. that have surfaced,” Howe
said. “We hope to continue to be part of that group.”
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