Fugure Skating Pair Riku Miura, Ryuichi Kihara Plan to Turn Professional

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:34 JST, April 26, 2026

Fugure skating pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara plan to turn professional, the two said on Saturday.

The gold medalists of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics pair event had previously announced that they will retire from competitive skating at the end of this season with an official press conference scheduled for Tuesday.

“During our carreer as competitive figure skaters, opportunities to performing in front of people in Japan were limited,” said Kihara, who spoke to reporters after a parade of Japanese athletes who took part in the Milano Cortina Olympics and Paralympics held in the Nihombashi district in Tokyo, on Saturday. “By performing as professional skaters, we want to do many things to make pair skating more accessible to people,” he said.