Canadian figure skater's laces came loose in middle of Olympic routine
Canadian figure skating fans held their breath during Stephen Gogolev’s performance in the men’s short program on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Toronto native is competing in his first Olympic Games in Italy and is looking to make an impact on the world stage. Gogolev already turned heads with an impressive performance in the men’s free program during the team event over the weekend, and was looking to follow it up.
Gogolev wound up putting up a solid routine for the judges, despite having a bit of a scare. Midway through his performance, his skate laces visibly came loose. Luckily, he didn’t get caught up in them and managed to finish the routine without an incident.
On the edge of our seats as we watched Stephen Gogolev's laces unwind during his performance pic.twitter.com/7tw4BLsWJU
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 10, 2026
Gogolev was able to skate his way to a top-10 performance despite the brief scare, notching a score of 87.41. Though it’s an impressive score, it was far off from the day’s top scores, with American phenom Ilia Malinin topping the leaderboards with a score of 108.16.
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CBC’s Devin Heroux caught up with Gogolev after the skate, where he admitted that he noticed the laces midway through the routine.
“Well, my first thought was ‘That isn’t very good right now, in the middle of the performance,'” Gogolev said when asked about the moment. “Towards the end, when I got to the last spin, I knew I was fine. It’s just like, I guess, the aesthetic.
“I became aware of it in the middle of my step sequence, as I saw a glimpse when I was doing a loop in one of my clusters. I knew it wasn’t the lace coming undone, and it was just that the laces came out of my pants. So they were just hanging loose. I was just hoping I wouldn’t catch it with the other foot.”
Stephen Gogolev had an undone lace scare during his short program but persevered!! pic.twitter.com/lLjDI6iBUu
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 10, 2026
Canada has yet to pick up a figure skating medal in this year’s Olympic Games. While Gogolev remains a long shot to get onto the podium in Italy, he will look forward to Thursday night, when he will compete in the men’s free skate program.