MILAN (AP) — Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara thought their chances of Olympic gold had gone by the wayside when the Japanese skaters made an uncharacteristic slip-up during their short program at the Milan Cortina Games.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara stormed back from fifth place to capture Japan's first Olympic figure skating pairs title on Monday.

Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara soared from fifth place to Olympic gold with a world-record free skate on Monday. See full pairs results, medalists and dramatic highlights from Milano-Cortina.

This kind of surprise ending happens now and then in figure skating, when pairs or singles not even in the last group leapfrog others to win gold.

The Olympic Team Event came down to the final skater on Sunday. In front of a packed house inside the Milano Ice Skating arena, the United States narrowly defeated Japan for its second consecutive team gold.

Japan's Ikuma Horishima botched his landing on his last jump in the men's round of 16 Sunday at the Milan Cortina Olympics, then bounced back up to ski backward over the finish line. And he still won.

Team USA plays Sweden today for a ticket to the women’s hockey final, while Eileen Gu looks to defend her big air title. Follow CNN for live updates on Day 10 of the Winter Olympics.

Kokomo Murase completed a golden snowboard Big Air Olympic double for Japan on Monday, after Kira Kimura had won the men's competition on the weekend. X Games champion Murase clinched the gold four years after bronze on her final jump with a score a score of 89.