With the 2026 Olympics just a year away, we look back at Beijing 2022. We examine the current Milano Cortina hopefuls who competed in the previous Olympic mens and pairs, to see how far they’ve come in the years between.

Chapters

0:00 — Intro and Context 2:09 — Original introduction 3:39 — Pairs Competition 24:17 — Men's Competition 51:55 — Thoughts from the Future 54:58 — Wrap-Up

This week we’re digging into the archives a bit, and looking back at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. In particular, we’re discussing the Pairs and Men’s figure skating competitions, and reflecting on the skaters who were there that we also expect to be at the next games in Milano Cortina — what they looked like then vs. where they appear to be heading!

This week marks one year until the start of the 2026 Olympic Games, so it feels like it’s time to start getting excited for them.

Note this is part one of two — we’ll be discussing the Womens and Ice Dance competitions from Beijing soon.

Pairs Competition

While its hard to reflect on this competition without falling all over ourselves about how remarkable the gold medalists, Sui and Han, were, we try not to focus out attention there — though, its not out of the realm of possibility that we will see Sui and her new partner in Milano Cortina.

Of those we expect to see, we take a look at many who have new parters including Luka Berulava, Minerva Hase, and Matteo Guarise. Of the teams who are still united, Riku Miura and Ryuchi Kihara are definitely the standouts. The Beijing games felt like their coming out party, and they have become favorites (and World Champions!) since.

Men’s Competition

The large, extraordinary shadows of Nathan Chen, Shoma Uno, and Yuzuru Hanyu still linger over us, but it was just as interesting to go back and see the men who’ve improved in skill and expression since 2022.

The growth and evolution of Yuma Kagiyama, Adam Siao Him Fa, and Lukas Britschgi is absolutely remarkable. What’s also wonderful is reliving how great Junhwan Cha, Deniss Vasiļjevs, and Kevin Aymoz were already. Watching all of them and more in Beijing made us exponentially more excited to see where they will all be in another year — and how intense that competition is going to be.

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