Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii's teamwork and friendship still firm ahead of Milano Cortina 2026 despite off-ice split

It seemed like a great story: Italian pairs figure skaters Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii were a couple both on and off ice, producing inspired skiing that led them to their first European title in January 2023.

The assumptions came quickly, that the two performed well on-ice thanks to their off-ice chemistry. But the pair revealed to Olympics.com during the recent Grand Prix de France that they took to the ice this season no longer together away from the rink.

"Since March, we are not a couple any more, we just skate together," Macii explained. "It was a difficult summer because we had to find the right balance, you know? But right now we are happy, we both have someone else – she has a boyfriend, I have a girlfriend."

Conti added: "Now I think the balance is so good. I have my life and Nic has his."

But that new-found freedom off the ice has translated, Macii thinks, into an even tighter friendship when the two are in the rink together.

"We're really close as a relationship for work," he said. "We really care about each other, about how we feel with the body, to skate good and to perform, because it all depends on each other.

"We're big friends."

• European Figure Skating Championships 2024 preview and how to watch

Conti and Macii still tight as friends and teammates

After the self-proclaimed "difficult summer", the two got back together with their coaches and choreographers to work on their 2023/24 season. And things clicked.

"It's teamwork," Conti explained matter-of-factly about how they planned their programs despite the shake-up in their off-ice relationship. "We wanted to create a story for each other and we wanted to skate (together) for me and for Nic and for our team; a collaboration with the coaches and our choreographer."

Macii explained that their choice of the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana for their short program this season was a personal one that touched both him and Conti, in tribute to his late grandfather who passed away two years ago.

"It's special music for me, but also for Sara," he said.

"It was the wedding music for my grandparents' wedding. My grandpa was almost my father so there's big meaning for me, and also for Sara, because she knows all my family," the 28-year-old added, before being interrupted by Conti.

"Especially his grandfather," she interjected for emphasis.

Despite their break-up, it remains clear that Conti and Macii's friendship remains strong, forged by years of skating and being together.

Conti/Macii forging ahead with home 2026 Winter Olympics in sights

While they are reigning European champions, Conti and Macii have experienced new challenges from elsewhere this season.

The Italians finished second at both their Grand Prix assignments and at the Grand Prix Final. Notably, the new German pair of Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, in their first season competing together internationally, beat them at the mid-season Final.

Macii recognised this when asked if the absence of last year's World gold and silver medallists, Miura Riku/Kihara Ryuichi (injury) and Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (competitive break), made him and Conti – the World bronze medallists in 2023 – favourites this year.

"Competitors may come even from behind us, you (aren't) always secure that everything is going to go good, you need to do your (job) first," he acknowledged, foretelling what would happen throughout the Grand Prix season.

"We have bigger possibilities this year, but we have to skate good, we have to do clean. We have to skate for each other so our performance will be good, then we will be happy about our performance. The rest will come."

Regardless of how this season goes, Conti and Macii are building up nicely to their major goal: the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which will take place in their home region of Lombardy.

And while their choice of short program this year was a personal one, both also hope to carry it through to perform in the Olympic season.

"Milano Cortina, for us, is the big dream," Conti said. "It's a very important short program and we want to try it this year, this is a special thing because we want to do in Milano Cortina."

And even if they may not be favourites for gold by then with strong new teams always ready to pounce, it doesn't matter to them: competing on home ice would be enough.

"We would like to bring in the Olympic Games the best programs we could do and we could have," Macii said.

"We want the stadium to come down (to bring the house down): we want everybody standing up. It has to be the biggest performance ever and the biggest emotions ever. That's the main goal for us."