"Which is to say that, by the time Malinin came up to skate on Friday, his winning gold seemed like a foregone conclusion for everyone in the world, Malinin included. One can imagine that when the primary goal becomes "don't mess up," it becomes exponentially harder to do so. Take all that-and put it on a skater who historically has been driven by doing the impossible and totally unnecessary-and this might well be the result:"
"Malinin fell twice. He popped, or effectively aborted, two more jumps. His final score left him not just without gold, but completely out of medal contention. Japan's Kagiyama won silver after all, his countryman Shun Sato took bronze, and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov earned a shocking gold. It was the most deserving podium based on Friday's skates, and also the podium nobody ever considered."
"If Malinin were only skating to win gold, he probably would have done it. But there was so much more that Malinin could have done, so he tried for each and every record, when he knew and everyone else knew that all he had to do was not mess up. He wanted to be the first to land a quad Axel on Olympic ice. You could tell because he popped the jump and only landed a single Axel, when all he had to do was not mess up."
Yuma Kagiyama delivered a near-perfect short program but underperformed in the free skate, missing three of four quadruple jumps. Adam Siao Him Fa produced a brilliant short program yet missed three of four quadruple jumps and dropped to sixth. Ilia Malinin entered as a heavy favorite and pursued multiple record attempts instead of conservative execution. Malinin fell twice and popped or aborted two additional jumps, finishing off the podium. Japan's Kagiyama won silver, Shun Sato took bronze, and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov claimed gold. Risk-taking for records preceded the loss of the gold medal.
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