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Team USA's two duos in pairs figure skating were unable to medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe finished above their teammates Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, but neither pair made the podium
Kam and O'Shea will still go home with a medal, after winning gold in the team event on Feb. 8
Team USA is out of medal contention in pairs figure skating, after both American duos struggled with falls during their free skating program.
The two sets of pairs —Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe — made several mistakes during their routines, ending up with deductions that pushed them down in the overall standings on Monday, Feb. 16 at the2026 Winter Olympicsin Milan.
O'Shea, 34, and Kam, 21, came in Monday hoping to improve on their seventh-place position after the short program the day before. They scored 122.71 in the free skate, bringing their total to 194.58. Chan and Howe, meanwhile, were in ninth to start the night, but improved, with a 130.25 in the free skate and a total of 200.31, finishing ahead of Kam and O'Shea.
The duos ended up swapping places in the standings in the final part of the event, with Chan and Howe finishing seventh overall, and Kam and O'Shea two behind them in ninth.
"I'm a little disappointed, I wish that I could've held out a little bit longer for another clean skate," Kam told reporters, including PEOPLE, after the event. "I feel like we built so much great momentum here at this competition and every single time we've stepped out on the ice it's felt more comfortable."
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"Skating on Olympic ice is literally dreams coming true," O'Shea added, before joking, "This whole 17 weeks 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 and some programs were really, really good."
Howe told reporters, including PEOPLE, after the skate that they were "grateful" to be at the Olympics.
"There was so much pressure trying to get to the Games, and for here, now that we made it, it's that pressure of being able to skate great performances in front of such a large crowd," he said. "We work so hard to get to this stage, and then once you make it, it's kind of like your brain doesn't know how to process that. It's hard to explain. We felt really grateful to be here and then also to be able to skate as well as we did, it's a huge blessing for us."
While neither pair will be bringing home a pairs figure skating medal, Kam and O'Shea won't go home empty handed, afterthey won gold in the team eventon Feb. 8 alongsideIlia Malinin,Amber Glenn,Alysa Liu,Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
Ahead of their performance, Kam and O'Shea, who have been skating together since 2022,told PEOPLE their seasonhas been full of "a lot of ups and downs" for the both of them, namely injuries.
"We had a lot of injuries in the offseason and coming into this year, you know what it would mean to perform well and make it to an Olympic team and have the chance to represent the country," said Kam. "You want that so bad… and at times it felt like we were so far away from that end goal, and it felt like we were getting farther instead of closer."
In March 2025, O'Shea broke his foot doing off-ice jumps, and it happened just 48 hours before the duo was set to depart for the World Championships. They still competed, and finished in seventh place, helping Team USA earn a spot in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
O'Shea underwent surgery for the injury, which required two plates and 11 screws, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
Months later, Kam suffered a concussion, one of the worst of her career, during a practice. The head injury kept her off the ice for one month, forcing the pair to pull out of an August opportunity and a competition that September. The pair returned to competition at the top level just four months before taking the ice in Milan.
"[Talk about] resilience. Not just pure hard work, but overcoming another roadblock, another roadblock, another roadblock. We got disheartened for sure," O'Shea said while speaking to PEOPLE. "But [we were] not allowing that to stop us from continuing forward."
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come topeople.comto check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.
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