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Want extra Olympics updates? Subscribe here to get our publication, Rachel Goes to the Games, delivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes take a look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam are on a mission to unfold pleasure on the Olympics — and it has been going effectively to date.
In their Olympic debut final weekend, they scored a private finest of their free skate, outperforming expectations to assist the U.S. win gold within the workforce occasion by a single level.
“I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t because I was so happy, so then we both ended up screaming at each other,” Kam stated. “[Joy] is something that we discussed as a team, just trying to enjoy every single moment. I think the crowd could feel it.”
It’s been a very long time coming for O’Shea, who turned 35 on Friday.
O’Shea skated competitively for 30 years — and retired twice — earlier than making it to his first Olympics. He and Kam overcame foot surgical procedure and a concussion, respectively, to win silver and a ticket to Milan on the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January.
“It’s been quite a few years of not making the team,” O’Shea stated on the time. “This is the fourth Olympic cycle that I’ve been a part of, and the fourth championship event that qualifies for an Olympic team. And I kept believing, and we made it happen.”
O’Shea began skating at age 4, impressed by watching the Winter Olympics on TV. And he got here shut through the years.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images / Getty Images Europe
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Getty Images Europe
“I went to the Pyeongchang Olympics as an alternate and sat on the outside of the aquarium looking in,” O’Shea stated throughout the workforce occasion final weekend. “Now, sitting here as the attraction, it’s kind of a fun experience.”
O’Shea retired from aggressive skating in 2020 and began working in actual property and as a training assistant in Colorado Springs. He returned to competitors in 2021 for a short-lived partnership, then left the game once more.
Meanwhile, Kam, who had additionally been skating since age 4, wanted somebody to observe with after her earlier partnership led to mid-2022.
O’Shea stepped in to observe with Kam — almost 14 years his junior — and one thing clicked. They formally paired up in 2022 and received bronze at nationwide championships the following yr, then gold in 2024.
He skated on an injured foot — which turned out to be broken — on the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. The two positioned seventh and gave the U.S. a uncommon shot at a 3rd pairs quota spot (which finally did not pan out).
The duo say their communication has solely improved over time. They discuss to one another on the ice — exchanging encouragement, reminders and the occasional inside joke — although they know they the opposite would not should pay attention.
“We really had to work on it a lot — not only with the age difference, with the gender difference, we’re very different people,” Kam stated throughout the workforce occasion. “But [we’ve learned] so much about ourselves in the past four years … even if he says something that doesn’t rub me in the right way, knowing that he has his best intentions, and I have the best intentions for the team, it definitely helps everything mentally when you come into high-stress, high-performance situations.”
O’Shea is the oldest U.S. Olympic pairs skater since 1932 and the oldest determine skater — from any nation — to make their Olympic debut since 1948, based on Team USA. O’Shea credited the troublesome occasions for getting ready him with the resilience and energy he wanted for his Olympic arrival.
“I really think that in life, the moments that feel the hardest, the moments that feel the most challenging, are really the ones that are building you up into becoming, for myself, the man that I can be and that the world deserves from me,” O’Shea. “And I’m very, very happy with the man I am today.”
O’Shea and Kam take the ice once more, alongside Team USA’s Spencer Howe and Emily Chan, within the pairs competitors on Sunday and Monday.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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