Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara announced their retirement from figure skating on Friday, two months after winning the Olympic gold medal with a record-breaking skate.
Miura and Kihara, known to fans as “RikuRyu,” leave the skating world at their peak after surging from fifth place to first at the Milan Cortina Olympics with a world-record free skate that more than made up for earlier errors.
They became the first Japanese pair to win Olympic gold, a breakthrough in a country whose figure skating passion had until then largely focused on the individual events.
“While our competitive careers are coming to an end, we truly feel that we gave it our all, and have no regrets. We are proud of everything we went through, and feel we gained so much along the way,” they posted on Instagram.
“The two of us will now take on new challenges so that we can bring wider recognition to pair skating in Japan. We hope that we can count on you to follow us on our journey.”
The 24-year-old Miura and 33-year-old Kihara's announcement came on the same day that they met Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at a spring garden party at the Akasaka Palace’s imperial garden in Tokyo.
Based out of Canada with coach Bruno Marcotte, Miura and Kihara won the world title in 2023 and 2025, and two Olympic team event silver medals for Japan.
The Milan Cortina Olympic free skate was the last competitive performance for Miura and Kihara, who skipped last month's world championships, where Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin won pairs gold for Germany.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
The Best Cymbidium and Orchid Show and Sale held in the San Francisco Peninsula will be the … Read moreAnnual Cymbidium & Orchid Show and Sale hosted by the Gold Coast Cymbidium Society & Peninsula Orchid Society
What is a fantasy in music—a form, or a freedom shared between performers? Read moreViolin Fantasie: Polina Sedukh, violin, Irina Behrendt, piano
GoodCitizen said:
CA Is Burning said:
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.