Ryuichi Kihara looked crestfallen as he left the ice after the Olympic pairs short program Sunday, knowing his big mistake on a lift would be costly for him and his partner, Riku Miura.

The team’s coach, Bruno Marcotte, quickly tried to temper Kihara’s disappointment, which would increase when he heard the scores that put the reigning world champions in fifth place heading into Monday’s free skate.

“It’s not over,” Marcotte insisted to Kihara, then repeated. “It’s not over.”

How right he was.

And how different Kihara’s emotions were when it was over, even if someone watching without knowing the context might have wondered why he was bawling, his face contorted by the tears of joy just a few hours after he had finished crying tears of distress.

He, too, would repeat himself. Kihara cried on the ice following a flawless and compellingly powerful free skate to music from “Gladiator,” then cried again upon realizing that a world record free skate score of 158.13 had turned a seven-point deficit into a nearly 10-point triumph over Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia.

It made them the first Japanese to win any Olympic pairs medal.

“Coming here, we were extremely confident,” Marcotte said.

That confidence only grew when Miura and Kihara dominated both pairs programs in the team event, racking up a personal best score (82.84 and 155.54) in each, helping Japan win a silver medal, just as they had done at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

That belief flagged after Kihara bollixed the dismount of a lift, their third of seven elements in the short program. It dropped them below second place in a short program for the first time in four seasons with their lowest score (73.11) in 12 competitions dating to November 2024.

“I was in despair,” Kihara said. “I couldn’t stop crying, even at practice this morning. I didn’t know how I was going to get myself up again.

“I’m so grateful to Riku. Normally, I’m the stronger one. This time around, Riku really supported me.”

The 4-foot-9 -inch Miura came up big, as both counselor and competitor.

“I felt like I needed to be strong and support him and help him to focus for the free program,” Miura said. “So that's how I spent the time between the short program and today's free.”

They held back nothing in the free, flying across the frozen surface of the Milano Ice Skating Arena, executing jumps and lifts and throws with aplomb and command and finesse. They were the only one of the medalists to avoid a negative grade of execution on the 11 elements. And their grades included several maximum plus-fives and a host of plus-fours.

“After yesterday, the message was, "You have to be the best in the world,” Marcotte said.

He reminded them that the 2018 Olympic champions, Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany, had overcome a sizeable deficit (just under six points) after the short program.

“I never, never stopped believing,” the coach said.

Marcotte felt that way since he played matchmaker in pairing them seven years ago after seeing both at a seminar he was doing in Japan. They almost immediately moved to Toronto to train with him.

Within a few months of training in Canada, they would win the Japanese title. Of course, they were the only pair entered.

While Japan had piled up Olympic and world championship titles and medals in men’s and women’s singles for some three decades, the country took little interest in pairs skating. Its couples had not finished higher than 14th in five Olympic appearances until Miura and Kihara took seventh in 2022.

Kihara, 33, a singles skater until age 20, competed in the 2014 and 2018 Olympics with his two partners before Miura, failing to qualify for the free skate either time. Miura, 24, had won a Japanese junior title with her previous partner.

“It’s very special because they started from scratch (as partners) with me,” Marcotte said.

They arrived in Canada just before the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020.  It meant they could not return to Japan for nearly a year. That gave Marcotte extra time to work with them, establishing the groundwork of their relationship.

“I always felt that Riku had the proper mindset to do it,” Marcotte said. “She was not afraid. She’s very gutsy.

“And I always felt Ryuichi was such a talented skater, but never was in a situation to maximize his talent.”

They would rack up first after first for Japanese pairs skaters. The biggest until now was the first world title in 2023. They did it again in 2025. So they knew what it was like to be best in the world. But being the best in the world at the Olympics is another story.

“It's a little bit of a disbelief, almost,” Miura said.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at 13 straight Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com.