MILAN, Italy — Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won silver in pairs figure skating Monday to secure the Georgia first Winter Olympic medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The reigning European champions stayed on their feet through a tense free skate — including a pivotal throw triple loop landing — to lock up second place and deliver a landmark podium for their country, Feb. 16, 2026.
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara surged to gold with a world-record 231.24 points, while Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin took bronze with 219.09. Metelkina and Berulava finished with 221.75 points, according to the International Skating Union’s official pairs results.
Georgia first Winter Olympic medal: a silver decided by one landing and four performances
The Georgia first Winter Olympic medal came after a tight fight behind Japan. Berulava called it “the best day of my life,” as the pair processed what their silver meant for a nation that had never reached the Winter Games podium — details first reported by Reuters.
Metelkina, 20, and Berulava, 23, were also juggling the workload of the Olympic team event in addition to the individual pairs competition. They said managing their energy across four separate programs at these Games was a major factor in their ability to hold second place under pressure.
In the free skate, a moment of instability on Metelkina’s landing from the throw triple loop nearly turned silver into a scramble for the final step of the podium. Asked what was going through her head, she quipped a simple “No!” before adding that there was still room to improve.
For fans looking for a quick medal snapshot, ESPN’s results page for the pairs final also lists the gold-silver-bronze order and totals from Milan.
A partnership built fast — and built for medals
The Georgia first Winter Olympic medal is the biggest result yet for a partnership that formed in spring 2023 and accelerated quickly through the international ranks. Their competitive résumé — including their programs, coaching team and training base — is summarized in their ISU skater bio.
Those steps mattered Monday because the pairs event turned into a test of who could deliver under Olympic tension. Hase and Volodin, the leaders after the short program, made costly mistakes in the free skate and slipped to bronze, while Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko finished fourth.
Continuity over time: the runway to Georgia’s first Winter Games podium
While the Georgia first Winter Olympic medal will be remembered as a single night in Milan, it was years in the making. Berulava had already helped raise Georgia’s profile in pairs skating earlier in his career, including a world junior title in 2022 with former partner Karina Safina — a result noted in U.S. Figure Skating’s World Junior Championships coverage.
By late 2024, Metelkina and Berulava were translating junior success into senior wins. They claimed a breakthrough Grand Prix victory at NHK Trophy in Tokyo — described by the ISU as Georgia’s first Grand Prix pairs gold — with Berulava saying he was proud they delivered “that first gold medal … for Georgia,” in an ISU recap of the 2024 NHK Trophy.
Then, just weeks before the Olympics, they captured the European pairs title in Sheffield, England — a confidence-boosting marker for what was coming in Italy. “We are just crazy happy,” Berulava said after that win, according to a Reuters report from the European Championships.
What the milestone means for Georgia
The Georgia first Winter Olympic medal is likely to reverberate beyond figure skating, giving Georgia a new flagship moment for winter sport and a visible pathway for young athletes in a country better known internationally for its Summer Games success.
Metelkina and Berulava have already said they intend to use the experience from Milan to set even bigger goals going forward. For now, Georgia first Winter Olympic medal is silver — and it is historic.
