As the music faded away at the Milano MSK-Competition Rink, the crowd gasped, surprised by Ilia Malinin’s performance. They watched his Olympic individual gold medal dream shatter in a matter of minutes. The unbeaten Quad God lost his title and placed in a devastating eighth position, nowhere near the podium. And it seems like he is ignorant of his other Olympic duty.

As reported by Christine Brennan on X, the massive media day that had been planned for Malinin at the Winter Olympics was postponed. Instead of facing a wall of reporters and cameras, the figure skater decided to spend his time with familiar faces: his teammates and other athletes at the Olympic village. Brennan was also told that the unofficial record for “supportive hugs for an athlete” might very well be broken on Saturday.

Well, this comes after a performance that was nowhere near what Malinin has delivered in the past throughout his figure skating career. He entered the free skate with a comfortable 5.09-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. After opening with a solid quad flip and a quad lutz, he bailed out of his signature quad salchow-triple axel, reduced a planned quad loop to a mere double, and then fell on another quad lutz.

Ilia Malinin also fell on his double salchow, ending the show with a score of 156.33 points. And with this performance, he was just more than ten points off the podium. And the frustration was imminent.

“They would have sent me to Beijing four years ago, then I wouldn’t have skated like that. It’s done,” he was heard saying, talking directly to his coaches right after the event. It’s not like the 21-year-old hasn’t attended high-pressure figure skating events, but the Olympic Games is its own stage. So, as he missed out on the Beijing Games four years ago, he pointed out the lack of experience.

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

Furthermore, Malinin admitted the flaws in his performance, 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. 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.”

Following the competition, the 21-year-old’s performance became a point of discussion for the figure skating community.

Veteran Olympic commentator’s view on Ilia Malinin’s skating disaster

All hopes were placed upon Ilia Malinin for that Olympic gold medal in men’s figure skating free skate. However, fate had other things planned for the American talent. And with him not being on the podium, veteran sportscaster and former tennis star Mary Carillo offered her perspective.

“He was uncertain. He said, and he allowed as much. He said maybe I was overconfident, you know? And again, it wasn’t great; a lot of people were falling down, and everybody was pretty tight, you know? The Kazakhstan kid wins. Right, number one. But yeah, no, spare a thought for him. I mean, it’s just very, very hard to see. You can’t hide in figs [figure skating],” she said, talking to NBC News’ Tom Llamas.

Malinin was very off with his performance, and Carillo could clearly see that. However, the 21-year-old wasn’t the only one frustrated with his performance.

Despite placing second, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama offered his stance on the event, stating, “I don’t feel any sense of relief at all. I made mistakes, and I feel tremendous frustration about that.”

He added, “However, I was able to achieve my quad flip and made an overall effort to challenge myself here, so that holds significant meaning for me. Today was really disappointing, but looking at the bigger picture, competing on the Olympic stage gave me immense experiences and valuable lessons.”

While the medal disaster will continue to haunt him for some time, Malinin has already found his way of engulfing himself in support and positivity rather than meddling over the past.