Ilia Malinin’s arrival in Milan was destined for greatness. He certainly stood up to the expectations, delivering the Olympic team gold for the United States. However, the pressure took over in the men’s individual free skate. But he also knew inexperience played a part in his collapse as he pointed fingers at the federation.

Right after the skate, he rushed toward his coaches with visible frustration. “They would have sent me to Beijing four years ago, then I wouldn’t have skated like that,” he said, pointing out the decision that was made for the 2022 Winter Games, where he wasn’t selected for the U.S. Olympic team.

“It’s done.

“Honestly, I was not expecting that. I felt like going into this competition, I just felt ready getting on that ice, but I think maybe that might have been the reason. Maybe I was too confident that I was gonna go well. I can’t process what just happened.”

While Malinin always carried the thought of not being selected in the Beijing Games, he is also a skater who was undefeated for over two years. Moreover, this record included his two World Championship titles, four U.S. titles, and multiple Grand Prix wins. It wasn’t like he hadn’t participated in high-pressure events before. However, the Olympics is its own stage.

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Entering the free skate with a comfortable 5.09-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama after a measured short program, Ilia Malinin seemed to be the one to take that gold medal home.

However, what unfolded at the Milano Ice Skating Arena left the figure skating world in disbelief. He fell multiple times, failed to complete several of his expected jumps, and lost an astonishing 72 points in jumping mistakes alone.

“I think it was definitely mental. Now, finally experiencing that Olympic atmosphere, it’s crazy. It’s not like any other competition.”

However, he acknowledged the errors he committed on the rink, stating, “I blew it. That’s honestly the first thing that came to my mind: ‘there’s no way that just happened’. I was preparing the whole season, you know.”

By the time his music faded, his free skate score of 156.33 brought his total to 264.49 points. And this performance pushed him all the way to eighth place, an unthinkable result when it came to someone like Ilia Malinin.

“I felt so confident with my program, so confident with everything. And just to go out and that happened was… I have no words, honestly.’

But while Malinin will only be taking home a medal for the team event and not this one, he will be taking lessons from his appearance at Milan and applying them to his future events. However, despite Malinin not being on the podium, the entire event was a blast for the fans.

A men’s figure skating podium without Ilia Malinin

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics produced a stunning podium that few could have predicted before the men’s figure skating free skate began. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov captured the gold medal in a career-defining performance, scoring 291.58 points to secure his nation’s first gold of the Games.

The 21-year-old delivered a brilliant program featuring five quadruple jumps, including a breathtaking triple axel-euler-quad salchow combination that earned him a technical score of 114.68, far surpassing his competitors.

Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama claimed the silver medal with 280.06 points. And completing the podium was another Japanese skater, Shun Sato, who earned bronze with 274.90 points after delivering a clean program.

For Ilia Malinin, this is a performance to forget. It won’t brush away the efforts he made throughout the Games, but it will be a lesson learned for the future.