Canada places 5th in figure skating team event; U.S. successfully defends gold

Canada missed the podium after finishing fifth in the figure skating team event on Sunday.

After three days of competition at the Milano Skating Arena, skaters Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier, Lia Pereira, Trennt Michaud, Marjorie Lajoie, Zachary Lagha, Madeline Schizas and Stephen Gogolev accumulated 54 points overall.

The defending champion United States repeated with gold after amassing 69 points — one point ahead of silver medallist Japan.

Italy took bronze with 60 points, its first medal in the team event since its inaugural appearance at the Winter Games in 2018.

The final day of the team event began with the pairs skating free program.

Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud — replacing Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps who dropped out of team event due to injury — skated to a rendition of the Gladiator soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

Their score of 134.42 was a season's best and put them fifth in the pairs segment.

Canadians Pereira and Michaud finish last in figure skating team pairs free program

“We're happy that we were able to put out a skate like that. The Americans laid out a really great performance ahead of us. We laid it down as well, so we're very proud of that," Pereira told reporters Sunday.

"We wanted to lay it down and do what we could control. We knew that if we did what we could, we would be satisfied, and that could be helpful for the team," Michaud said.

The big performance in pairs skating came from the reigning world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who delivered a season-best score of 155.55 points to place first in the event.

The Japanese duo, who also skated to the Gladiator soundtrack, currently train in Oakville Ont.

In the women’s singles event, Canada’s Madeline Schizas was