"Malinin, 21, was seen as a lock since he hasn't lost a major competition since 2023. He held a comfortable five-point lead heading into the free skate, one that was only expected to grow with his signature stack of quadruple jumps. But when he finally took the ice, the last skater of the night to do so, he fell twice and downgraded many of his planned moves."
""The nerves just were so overwhelming, and especially going into that starting post, I just felt like all the traumatic moments of my life really just started flooding my head and I just did not handle it," Malinin said after. Malinin ended the night with 264.49 points. Shaidorov's final score was 291.58. The silver and bronze medals both went to members of the Japanese team, Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato."
Milan hosted the men's figure skating event at the 2026 Winter Olympics where Ilia Malinin, 21, entered as the heavy favorite but finished eighth after multiple falls and downgrades. Malinin led by five points before the free skate and had been expected to showcase his quadruple jumps and attempt a quadruple axel, but he fell twice and replaced the planned quad axel with a single axel. Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, a 21-year-old first-time Olympian, won gold with 291.58 points. Malinin scored 264.49. Japan's Yuma Kagiyama won silver and Shun Sato took bronze.
Read at www.npr.org
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