Want more Olympics updates? Subscribe here to get our newsletter, Rachel Goes to the Games, delivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Danny O'Shea and Ellie Kam are on a mission to spread joy at the Olympics — and it's been going well so far.
In their Olympic debut last weekend, they scored a personal best in their free skate, outperforming expectations to help the U.S. win gold in the team event by a single point.
"I wanted to cry, but I couldn't because I was so happy, so then we both ended up screaming at each other," Kam said. "[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 long time coming for O'Shea, who turned 35 on Friday.
O'Shea skated competitively for 30 years — and retired twice — before making it to his first Olympics. He and Kam overcame foot surgery and a concussion, respectively, to win silver and a ticket to Milan at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January.
"It's been quite a few years of not making the team," O'Shea said at 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 started skating at age 4, inspired by watching the Winter Olympics on TV. And he came close over the years.
"I went to the Pyeongchang Olympics as an alternate and sat on the outside of the aquarium looking in," O'Shea said during the team event last weekend. "Now, sitting here as the attraction, it's kind of a fun experience."
O'Shea retired from competitive skating in 2020 and started working in real estate and as a coaching assistant in Colorado Springs. He returned to competition in 2021 for a short-lived partnership, then left the sport again.
Meanwhile, Kam, who had also been skating since age 4, needed someone to practice with after her previous partnership ended in mid-2022.
O'Shea stepped in to practice with Kam — nearly 14 years his junior — and something clicked. They officially paired up in 2022 and won bronze at national championships the next year, then gold in 2024.
He skated on an injured foot — which turned out to be broken — at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. The two placed seventh and gave the U.S. a rare shot at a third pairs quota spot (which ultimately didn't pan out).
The duo say their communication has only improved over time. They talk to each other on the ice — exchanging encouragement, reminders and the occasional inside joke — though they know they the other doesn't have to listen.
"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 said during the team event. "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 figure skater — from any country — to make their Olympic debut since 1948, according to Team USA. O'Shea credited the difficult times for preparing him with the resilience and strength he needed 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 again, alongside Team USA's Spencer Howe and Emily Chan, in the pairs competition on Sunday and Monday.
Copyright 2026 NPR