Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara soared from fifth place to Olympic gold with a world-record free skate on Monday. See full pairs results, medalists and dramatic highlights from Milano-Cortina.

By Lori Ewing MILAN, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara delivered a thrilling comeback at the Milano Cortina Games, storming from fifth place after a shaky short programme to capture Japan's first Olympic figure skating pairs title on Monday.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara stormed back from fifth place to capture Japan's first Olympic figure skating pairs title on Monday.

The Olympic figure skating pairs competition ended with Japan taking gold and Team USA getting two top 10 finishes. See full results, highlights.

The Olympic Team Event came down to the final skater on Sunday. In front of a packed house inside the Milano Ice Skating arena, the United States narrowly defeated Japan for its second consecutive team gold.

The pair won a surprise gold at the 2024 World Championships, and continued to push forward toward the 2026 Olympics even as the obstacles grew higher and higher, from tougher competition to lingering illness and injury. Still, they persisted, and in January were named to the Canadian Olympic team and slated to skate in the team event.

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — A generation ago, the sight of an Olympic halfpipe podium drenched in red, white and blue was as common as fresh powder on the mountain — a fitting and expected celebration for a sport born and raised in the United States.