The Right Partner
by Royce
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” — Proverbs 27:17
Ryuichi had been on the ice since he was four years old. He was talented enough as a singles skater to compete at the junior World Championships — but not elite enough to break through in Japan’s fiercely competitive men’s singles.
At age 20, facing the end of his singles career, he made a decision: transition to pairs — a discipline entirely foreign to him, where every element had to be relearned from scratch. He gave himself to it fully. He found a partner.
They went to the 2014 Sochi Olympics together. He came home without qualifying for the free skate. His partner left. He found another partner. They went to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Again, he didn’t qualify for the free skate. Then he suffered a concussion. Then that partner left too.
Two Olympics. Two partnerships dissolved — not by him, but by partners who moved on. Years of investment with nothing to show for it on the biggest stages. By 2019, he was quietly contemplating retirement.
Then he showed up to a federation tryout — not to compete, but to assist unpaid. He was heading for the exit when his coach, Bruno Marcotte, called him back: “Put on your skates. Try skating with Riku for just one hour.” He agreed. When he launched Riku Miura into a twist lift and she soared impossibly high, Marcotte gasped. Kihara later said it felt like “being struck by lightning.” His desire to quit disappeared on the spot.
What followed rewrote Japanese skating history. Together, Miura and Kihara became the first Japanese pair ever to win a Grand Prix event, a Grand Prix Final, a Four Continents Championship, and a World Championship — claiming the world title not once but twice, in 2023 and 2025.
They arrived in Milan 2026 as reigning World Champions and heavy favorites. Then in the short program, a single uncharacteristic mistake on a lift dropped them to 5th place, 6.9 points behind the leaders. In figure skating, that number is devastating.
Ryuichi cried through the night. Through morning practice. Through warmup. “I was in despair,” he said. “I didn’t know how to get up again.” Miura — nine years his junior — became his anchor. “I told him: I’m going to skate for you today,” she said. “And he replied: we’re going to skate for each other.”
What followed was nearly flawless. When the final score flashed — 158.13 points, a new world record — they had turned that 6.9-point deficit into a nearly 10-point victory. Japan’s first-ever Olympic gold in pairs figure skating. It was the greatest comeback in pairs history. And it was 30 years in the making.
Proverbs 27:17 says that iron sharpens iron — one person sharpens another. But this only happens when the right two pieces meet, at the right angle, with the right friction. Two pieces of iron placed in the same room don’t sharpen each other. Wrong contact doesn’t sharpen — it dulls, or it damages. And you can spend years grinding against the wrong surface, wondering why nothing is changing, never realizing the problem was never the iron. It was the angle.
Ryuichi had been iron all along. Talented, trained, disciplined. But it took the right partner — one whose trust and fearlessness matched his strength — to finally reveal what he was fully capable of.
This is the truth many of us resist in seasons of waiting: the right partnership cannot be forced, manufactured, or rushed. It often arrives not when we are striving hardest, but when we are simply faithful enough to keep showing up. Kihara didn’t find Miura by trying harder. He found her by showing up to a room he almost didn’t enter, willing to serve without expectation, with nothing left to prove.
God is not wasteful. Every season of loss, every partnership that ended without your choosing, every moment you stayed on the ice when you had every reason to leave — none of it was wasted. It was preparation. The right partner rarely comes first. They come after you’ve proven you’ll faithfully show up.
Reflection
- Have you ever walked away — or considered walking away — from something you were called to, not because you wanted to, but because the people you counted on left?
- Looking back, can you see how seasons of loss or waiting actually prepared you for something — or someone — you couldn’t have been ready for before?
Prayer
Lord, thank You that You are not finished with me in the seasons that feel like endings. Strengthen me to keep showing up — not because I can see what’s ahead, but because You are faithful. Where I have been hurt by partnerships that dissolved, bring healing. Where I have grown weary of waiting, renew my hope. And when the right person walks through the door, give me eyes to recognize what You have prepared. Amen.