VIDEO The biggest surprise of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Disaster for the American Ilia Malinin
American athlete Ilia Malinin falls during the men's figure skating program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 13, 2026. PHOTO: Claudio Furlan/AP/Profimedia
American athlete Ilia Malinin finished just 8th on Friday night, dramatically missing the podium in figure skating at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Considered the big favorite, the skater inexplicably missed the free program, and Mikhail Shaidorov, from Kazakhstan, won the gold medal, Eurosport and Reuters write.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama won the silver medal and his compatriot Shun Sato took the bronze medal, on a night when many top skaters struggled to execute the jumps.
Ilia Malinin (21), the big star of the Olympics thanks to his aerial performance during figure skating exercises, fell twice on the ice on Friday night. Moreover, Ilia did not manage an important jump and was scored with only 264.49 points.
Kazakh Mikhail Shaidorov scored 291.58 points. Yuma Kagiyama took the silver with 280.06 points and Shun Sato was scored with 274.90 points.
“I blew it,” Malinin told NBC after finishing in a shocking eighth place.
“Honestly, that was the first thing that came to my mind. This can't have happened. I've been preparing all season and I was so confident in my program, so confident in everything. I'm speechless,” added the American athlete.
