Retired Olympic pairs champions Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi will skate professionally for the foreseeable future, with an eye on coaching, and eventually opening their own academy to groom the next generation of “Riku-Ryu”.
At a press conference on Tuesday (28 April) in Tokyo explaining their decision to hang up their skates, Miura/Kihara said they knew all along that the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic season, which ended in a gold medal that capped a career Grand Slam, would be their last.
Their first show as professional skaters is on Friday. “Bloom on Ice,” will be held near Osaka.
“We thought about retiring from the beginning of the season,” Miura said. “When we placed fifth in the short program at the Olympics, the thought of another four years crossed our mind because we couldn’t go out like this.
“But in the free, we believed in ourselves and everything that we had worked for – and were able to leave everything out there on the ice. After the Olympics, we decided to skip the world championships, and we knew that was it for us.”
Added Kihara, who wasted no time tearing up, crying during his opening remarks: “Once the Olympics was over we were overcome with the feeling that we had nothing more to give.
“At that point, we felt like our career was over.”
Miura Riku on final season: “Everything was for the Olympics”
Boston, March 2025. Shortly after capturing their second world title, that’s when the couple first felt they were approaching the end of a career that began back in 2019.
“We started talking about it bit by bit when we won our second world championship last year,” said the 24-year-old Miura, who is nine years younger than Kihara.
“After that, we began our choreography for the free. Initially, we had different music but knowing that the next season would be our last, we asked (Allie Hann-McCurdy) to choreograph to Gladiator because we absolutely wanted to skate to it. And that’s when we told Allie that we could be done after the Olympics.
“Our life has always revolved around skating but this past year, everything was for the Olympics. We didn’t compromise.”
Throughout the Games, Kihara was often in tears, including one moment after finishing the short program in fifth place following a rare elementary mistake on the lift. Everyone assumed he was upset over the error. He was, of course, but that wasn’t the only reason.
Japanese figure skating is set to take on a very different look in 2026-27. Along with the departure of Miura/Kihara, four-time women’s world champion Sakamoto Kaori has also retired while four-time Olympic silver medallist Kagiyama Yuma is sitting out the campaign.
“We wanted to end it with a gold so once we did win it, we talked to each other right away about retiring,” Kihara said.
“We went through the Olympics knowing it was our last competition. We couldn’t say it at the time but that was a huge reason for all the tears.”
Kihara Ryuichi: “You can’t win on technique alone. I want to share that”
Miura and Kihara were hoping to coach right away, but quickly realised it would be a few years before they could obtain the required teaching badges.
During that period, they will tour the country to familiarise pairs skating. Having been based in Canada for the last seven years in Canada, Miura/Kihara want to finally spend some time showing their home fans what their profession is all about.
“I think for a while, we want to help spread pairs skating as much as we can,” Kihara said. “That will take time and we will probably need four, five years to study and acquire our licenses.
“I myself have had a lot of injuries so I want to pass on that experience to the kids. As well as things like nutrition, the mental side of skating. You can’t win on technique alone. I want to share that.”
Once they have their licenses, the Japanese duo will have the backing to open their own academy devoted to pairs skating. The Kinoshita Group, which has an academy in Kyoto where top-level skaters like Chiba Mone and Shimada Mao are based, is expected to bankroll the project.
Miura/Kihara said when they started pairs skating, no one could coach the discipline and they desperately wanted to change that.
“When I first thought about pairs skating, I had no choice but to go overseas,” Kihara said. “And it hasn’t been getting any easier. It will take us a few years to become instructors but if kids interested in pairs can take that first step in Japan, I think the pairs population will grow.”
Added Miura, “There were no pairs coaches in Japan when I began. It’s not easy being based abroad. We ran into some difficult times with the language barrier and what not, and that is something I’d like to see change.”
And one day, they hope to see their students mirror the success they’ve had.
“I want to see our students sweep the podium,” Miura said.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/figure-skating-miura-kihara-retirement-press-conference
