Catastrophic program at the 2026 Olympic Games. The great favorite for the Olympic gold completely succumbed under pressure. Historic miss for the American
Ilia Malinin, the 21-year-old young American figure skater and heavy favorite for Olympic gold in Milano Cortina, has lived the ultimate nightmare of his career. He completely clicked in the free saddle figure skating program and finished in an unexpected 8th place.
Ilia Malinin, disaster at the 2026 Olympics Photo/Getty
He was expected to shine and bring the hall to its feet as he was undoubtedly considered the leading contender for the gold medal in the men's figure skating competition. But the pressure was too much.
His program, which included seven spectacular quads, turned into a series of errors: he managed only three jumps, Flip, Lutz and Toeloop, and his signature quad Axel completely eluded him. Along the way, two more falls followed, turning everything into a real disaster.
Mikhail Shaidorov won Olympic gold
The score obtained, only 156.33 in the free program, only emphasized the failure, compared to 198.64 obtained by the champion Mikhail Shaidorov.
In everyone's eyes, Ilia felt the entire world of sports collapse around him and, for the first time, even he could no longer control the expectations that weighed heavily.
“Not many people will understand this. Those inside the sport will understand it. Going into this competition, especially today, I felt good. Earlier in training everything worked fine.
“The emotions were just overwhelming!”
I felt prepared and all I had to do was get out on the ice and trust that everything would work out, but it happened so quickly! I didn't have time to process what broke.
For the moment, I felt that it was not just emotions, but maybe the ice was not in the best conditions for what I would have liked. It's not an excuse, we've all been in that situation, but the emotions were just overwhelming. When I assumed the initial position, all the traumatic moments in my life began to invade my mind. So many negative thoughts invaded my mind that I couldn't manage them!“said Malinin, for NBC.
“I felt like I was out of control!”
Later, Ilia was overwhelmed by what happened on the ice, unable to fully understand how it all unfolded. When asked if missing the quadruple Axel was the moment that triggered the disaster, he clarified: it wasn't that jump that marked the “beginning of the end”.
“SI knew I didn't need a perfect schedule. I could have skated very well. But then other mistakes appeared. I don't know exactly what it was, I'm still trying to understand. So I don't have a clear answer yet.
The noise itself is difficult to manage. Social media has fluctuating, ups and downs. People don't understand the pressure and emotions that can come at the Olympics. I felt out of control . From here, I just have to regroup and see what I do next!”Mlainin also admitted, according to the same source.
Final standings:
1. Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan) 291.58 points (92.94 + 198.64)
2. Yuma Kagiyama (Japan) 280.06 (103.07 + 176.99)
3. Shun Sato (Japan) 274.90 (88.70 + 186.20)
4. Junhwan Cha (South Korea) 273.92 (92.72 + 181.20)
5. Stephen Gogolev (Canada) 273.78 (87.41 + 186.37)
6. Petr Gumennik (individual neutral athlete) 271.21 (86.72 + 184.49)
7. Adam Siao Him Fa (France) 269.27 (102.55 + 166.72)
8. Ilia Malinin (USA) 264.49 (108.16 + 156.33)
9. Daniel Grassl (Italy) 263.71 (93.46 + 170.25)
10. Nika Egadze (Georgia) 260.27 (85.11 + 175.16)
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