“Quad God” Defeated at Olympics

By Suraya Harr
Sports Editor

Predicted gold medal figure skating champion Ilia Malinin shockingly failed to make it onto the podium at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. This is the first time since November of 2023 that the American skater has lost a competition; and it was on the world’s biggest stage. How exactly did we get here?

The 21 year old figure skater dominated in the first skating event, placing first with an astonishing 238.24 points. Going into the second event, he was positioned as the heavy favourite. His program consisted of several quad jumps, impressive sequences and tricks that should have easily led him to victory. Once he stepped onto the ice however, it was clear that something was amiss. Early into the program, Malinin failed to land his well-known quadruple axel. After briefly recovering with a quad lutz, the rest of his program began to fall apart.

Instead of completing his planned quad loop, he opted for a double loop, which lost him an estimated 10 points overall. Then, in a shocking turn, the skater fell on a quad lutz combination, resulting in only around 3 points post-deductions. The skater also fell out of a quad-salchow triple axel sequence. With two falls and several deductions, it became evident that Malinin would not be able to salvage his program. The last third of his performance severely deviated from his planned choreography as the skater attempted to gain back the points he had lost. Unfortunately, the damage was done. Malinin fell from 1st to 8th place, staggering audiences everywhere. The podium consisted of Mikhail Shaidorov from Kazakhstan in 1st, Yuma Kagiyama in 2nd and Shun Sato in 3rd (both from Japan).

Malinin gracefully congratulated Shaidorov after the points were presented by the judges. However, it is clear the skating prodigy is devastated by the result: “There’s no ⁠way that just happened. I ⁠was preparing the whole ⁠season ⁠and was ​so confident in my program, ​so confident ⁠with everything. I have no words really”. Discussions on social media have speculated that the ice may have been too soft for the skaters, as Malinin was not the only skater to experience some unexpected wipeouts. Others have speculated that anxiety and pressure from fans may have been the reason for the unexpected results. Either way, this is likely not the last time we will see Malinin on the Olympic stage.