American figure skating star Ilia Malinin endured a dramatic collapse in the men’s free skate on Friday night, falling twice and tumbling out of medal contention at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics as Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov surged to a surprise gold medal.
Malinin, the reigning world champion widely known as the sport’s most daring jumper, entered the free skate with a commanding lead following the short programme. The 21-year-old appeared set to add individual Olympic gold to the team title he had already helped secure for the United States earlier in the Games.
Instead, the skater nicknamed the “Quad God” struggled through one of the most difficult performances of his career. Two costly falls left the crowd at the Milano Ice Arena stunned as his title hopes slipped away.
“Honestly, I still haven’t been able to process what just happened,” Malinin said afterwards. “Going into this competition, I felt really good this whole day. Feeling really solid. I just thought that all I needed to do was trust the process that I’ve always been doing.
“But it’s not like any other competition. It’s the Olympics,” he added. “I think people don’t realise the pressure and the nerves that actually happen from the inside. It was really just something that overwhelmed me and I just felt like I had no control.”
Shaidorov capitalised on the opportunity, delivering the skate of his life to secure a career-best total of 291.58 points and claim Olympic gold.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama took silver for the second consecutive Games, while teammate Shun Sato secured bronze.
Malinin ultimately dropped to eighth place with 264.49 points, bringing to an end a remarkable unbeaten run spanning more than two years, including 14 consecutive competitions and two world championship titles.
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