How Olympic figure skaters soar after stumbling on the ice : NPR

MILAN – After decades of practice and competition, American skaters Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea were finally on Olympic ice Friday, floating and twisting in perfect harmony in the team pair short program. Then it happened. Faster than you can snap your fingers, Kam fell with a bump.

“We wish we were perfect every single time we step out on the ice,” the 21-year-old Kam said after the performance with a melancholy smile. “But you know, ice is slippery.”

What’s fascinating about Kam and O’Shea’s performance in Milan isn’t that they stumbled. No amount of work or training can remove every variable every time. The history of Olympic figure skating is shaped almost as much by epic falls as by soaring pirouettes.

What’s remarkable is how fast they recovered. In another snap of the fingers, with k.d. Lang’s version of “Hallelujah” as their soundtrack, Kam leapt back off the hard ice, spinning into rhythm with O’Shea.

“(Kam) didn’t need me to pick her up. She got up and went after the next thing,” said O’Shea, who’s 34. “We put the past in the past, and stepped right into the next element.”

How do skaters do it? How do they find grace in the moments after the physical and emotional punishment of an Olympic fall?

“I mean it’s a lot of practice, for sure,” Kam said. “We focus [in training], so that if something does go wrong in competition, we don’t have to question anything. I’m going to be where he is.”

There’s also communication: “We definitely look at each other,” O’Shea said. “I do a lot of talking throughout our program. In that moment, it’s a deep breath. It’s like, all right, calm, one more thing, spin.”

“We just fell down, it’s very strange”

They weren’t the only ones to hit the ice on Friday. China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong won a gold medal in pairs figure skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

But during their team pair skating program, Sui Wenjing landed hard after flipping through the air.

“We fell down this time,” Han Cong said. “We’ve skated well recently, but we just fell down, it’s very strange. We now have the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming [event]. Sui Wenjing nodded confidently, suggesting that we use this time to practice more and recover from jet lag. Sometimes, bouncing back from a stumble like that can lead to triumph.

After a crash at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, China’s Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao attempted a risky throw that had never been landed in a major competition before. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned, resulting in Zhang Dan injuring her knee. However, they returned to the ice shortly after and ended up winning a silver medal.

In 2018, American Nathan Chen also faced challenges at the Winter Games in South Korea but managed to make a historic recovery by landing six quadruple jumps in a single free skate program. Chen, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, shared that he felt like he had nothing to lose after falling multiple times.

The ultimate goal is to avoid major falls and recover smoothly. American skater Alysa Liu, age 20, demonstrated this during the team women’s single skating competition in Milan. Despite a small error during her performance, Liu quickly recovered and confidently landed her next jumps. She laughed off the mistake, showing her resilience and confidence.

It’s all good, right?

Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the figure skating women’s team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Francisco Seco/AP

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Francisco Seco/AP

Liu finished strong, capturing second place for her portion of the team event, while helping lift the U.S. team into first place for the overall team skating competition that continues through Sunday.

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