After his major defeat in his Olympic debut, Ilia Malinin received messages of support from American Olympic legends including Scott Hamilton and Apolo Ohno. Malinin, 21, a two-time world champion and a gold medal favorite, experienced unexpected mistakes in the men’s singles free skate final on Friday. Despite leading with 108.16 points in the short program on Tuesday, he only completed three out of seven planned quadruple jumps and fell twice during the free skate.
The most shocking moment came at the start when the “quad Axel king” unexpectedly turned his signature quadruple Axel into a single rotation jump. Malinin, known for his solid jumping in previous training and programs, left the audience in disbelief with this mistake. Ultimately, his free skate earned him only 156.33 points, totaling 264.49 points, dropping from first place to eighth.
Although facing one of the heaviest blows in his career, Malinin received encouraging messages from legends in the figure skating and sports community: Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, posted on social media saying, “One performance does not define anyone. Ilia Malinin displayed great composure, and I greatly admire him! I know he will face this with strength, courage, and dignity. We all love you!”
Apolo Ohno, a holder of eight Olympic medals, admired Malinin’s post-competition honesty. “He said this is purely a mental issue, which shows honesty and accountability. To have the courage to face it, rather than making excuses, is commendable,” Ohno added, “He’s only 21, and he will come back.”
Simone Biles, the gymnastics icon with 11 Olympic medals, including 7 golds, who faced tremendous mental pressure at the Tokyo Olympics, stood and applauded for Malinin at the Milano Ice Skating Arena that night.
In the early hours of Saturday, Malinin wrote in all capitals on Facebook, “I BLEW IT. The first thought that came to my mind was: This can’t be happening.”
“I felt extremely prepared going into the competition, which might have been the problem,” he explained, “I may have been too confident that everything would go smoothly.”
Kurt Browning, a four-time world champion from Canada, called the evening’s events one of the biggest upsets in figure skating history during CBC’s broadcast. “When the gold medal seems almost guaranteed, it puts you in a dangerous position,” Browning remarked. “Under that kind of pressure, it’s hard to muster the drive to fight back.”
At the moment of Malinin’s error, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov surprised everyone by winning the gold medal with a total score of 291.58, securing his country’s first Winter Olympic gold since 1994, and he was embraced and congratulated by Malinin immediately. Japanese skaters Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato claimed the silver and bronze medals respectively.