Photos by Melanie Heaney

Buongiorno from Milano!

The ice dance is now completed, but we can’t stop thinking about all the memories from the Team Event and the ice dance event. Make sure you do not miss my recaps we posted on our 2026 Winter Olympics Hub, and the beautiful photos taken by Melanie Heane, including some very sweet ones we are posting on our socials that show moments on the ice capturing the emotions post-performance.

From what we gather from both direct information and social media posts, some ice dancers have already left Milano, but a lot are still here, enjoying the Olympic atmosphere, watching other competitions, and exploring the town a little more.

The other day, Paul Poirier, Lewis Gibson, and Kaitlyn Weaver were some of the main panellists at the Out and Proud event at Milano’s Pride House, sharing their personal stories about coming out, visibility, and the values of inclusion (a full article about this will be published soon). Olivia Smart joined last minute and delivered an inspiring speech about supporting the LGBTQI+ community. Partner Jean-Luc Baker was also there and the two announced their engagement, with both glowing with happiness! The question was asked by Jean-Luc on Valentine’s Day, while the two were browsing the streets of Milano. This is another great Olympic memory to cherish!

Meanwhile, the Men’s competition was completed, and what a competition that was.

Favourite Ilia Malinin was first after the short programme, but struggled to cope with the pressure and, sadly, missed out on some key elements in his free programme to finish in eighth place overall. Malinin, alongside Team USA athletes that include Madison Chock and Evan Bates, won gold at the Olympic Team Event.

The surprise Olympic champion is Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who skated a great free program with high technical content, including a triple Axel–quadruple Salchow jump combination, to take Kazakhstan to the highest spot on the podium for the first time in the history of his country. Before him, the late Denis Ten won bronze in Sochi in 2014; Shaidorov referred to him, saying he was proud to honour his memory this way.

His reactions on the leader’s chair were pure entertainment, showing what it means to medal at the Olympics: his face showed surprise when he was sure he would have medalled, with that surprise increasing when he learned he would have earned silver, to then move into shock when he realised he was the new Olympic champion.

Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama won a fourth Olympic silver medal, which adds to the silver he won at this Olympics Team Event, and the previous Olympics silvers in the Team and individual events.

His short was skated with confidence and had him in temporary second place. Hi free to music from Turandot, which is a masterpiece, had a couple of mistakes but still resulted in the second overall total that secured his medal.

He seemed genuinely happy about the result but also seemed to be really excited to have teammate Shun Sato on the podium with him.

Sato was eighth after the short, but skated his free programme with confidence, continuing to show consistency throughout this successful season for him.

Upon realising he won bronze, he first seemed speechless and shocked, then burst into tears, with Kagiyama next to him clapping and congratulating him.

Other memorable moments from the Men’s final included Canada’s Stephen Gogolev confident skate, which resulted in the second-best free of the day and a fifth-place finish overall, and Korea’s Jun-Hwan Cha’s great performance that had him just out of the podium.

Overall, this Men’s event was characterized by a lot of movements from short to free, with a final that left everyone at the edge of their seats and that shows that, in this sport, nothing can be taken for granted.

One thing I am really appreciating is to see how many skaters are in the arena supporting the other skaters and enjoying other events. This is the beauty of the Olympics: they are not just about your competition, but they are about the entire experience and the spirit of fraternity shared across those are at the heart of it.

Matteo