Olympic champion Rodnina called the pairs tournament at the Olympic Games a sad sight.

The pair skating competitions at the Olympic Games in Italy were a sad sight without the Russians. This opinion was expressed on February 17 by three-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina.

"Firstly, the absence of Russian couples," the agency's interlocutor continued. — Although, no matter how they tried to exclude us, the Russian spirit was still present in literally everything there - either the coaches, or the athletes, or the whole couple, or half of the couple. "There's a Russian spirit, there's a Russian smell." Today, all pair skating consists, as a rule, of stable three good pairs from Russia, one or two pairs from Canada, and more on small things. Maybe Italy, maybe France, but the main backbone of the competition has always consisted of Russian couples," TASS quoted Rodnina as saying.

The victory in pair skating with a world record in the free skate was won by Japanese Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who scored 231.24 points (73.11 for the short program and 158.13 for the free skate). The second place was taken by representatives of Georgia Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (221.75). The bronze medalists were representatives of Germany Minerva Fabien Haze and Nikita Volodin (219.09).

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Irina Rodnina said on February 14 that the referee's assessment of Russian figure skater Pyotr Gumennik at the 2026 Olympics was not underestimated, the athlete adequately coped with the competitive situation.

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