- American figure skater Ilia Malinin crumbled during the men’s free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
- The gold medal favorite fell multiple times and bailed out of several planned quadruple jumps.
- Malinin finished in eighth place, his worst result since November 2023.
- His final score of 264.49 was significantly lower than the gold medal winner’s total.
MILAN — What could have been a gold medal-winning long program ended in total collapse by Ilia Malinin on Friday at the 2026 Winter Olymipcs.
The American figure skating star, who was the gold medal favorite entering these Games, shockingly crumbled in the men’s free skate, landing him in eighth place and resulting in his worst finish since November 2023. Had the program been executed well, it would have almost certainly earned the ‘Quad God’ the win in dominant fashion. But wound up falling multiple times and bailing out of jumps.
Here’s a breakdown every element from Malinin’s free skate program, looking at what was planned compared to what actually happened.
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Element No. 1
- What was planned: Quad flip
- What he actually performed: Quad flip
- Malinin executed his first jump in picture-perfect fashion.
- Score: 15.71.
Element No. 2
- What was planned: Quad Axel
- What he actually performed: Single Axel
- The first sign of trouble came on the second element. Malinin was expected to perform his signature quad Axel, but he bailed on the jump midway, resulting in just a single Axel. What could have been a gigantic score barely netted him a point.
- Score: 1.04.
Element No. 3
- What was planned: Quad Lutz
- What he actually performed: Quad Lutz
- Malinin got back on program, landing his second quad jump to briefly restore back hope that the single Axel was just a minor bump.
- Score: 15.61.
Element No. 4
- What was planned: Quad loop
- What he actually performed: Double loop
- Another sign of trouble, Malinin again ditched a quad jump. Instead of going for a quad loop, he settled for an awkward looking double loop, resulting in another low score.
- Score: 1.77.
Element No. 5
- What was planned: Change foot camel spin
- What he actually performed: Change foot camel spin − Grade 3.
- In Malinin’s planned move, he is given a Grade 3 out of 4 on the change foot camel spin. These elements are not high-scoring.
- Score: 3.44.
Element No. 6
- What was planned: Step sequence
- What he actually performed: Step sequence − Grade 3
- In the artistic element of his program, Malinin got another Grade 3 on the step sequence.
- Score: 4.20.
Element No. 7
- What was planned: Quad Lutz + single euler + triple flip
- What he actually performed: Quad Lutz
- This is where things really begin to ravel. In a sequence that involves several leaps, Malinin performed only one because he completely fell on the quad Lutz. He hit the ice, resulting in a low score in what could have been a massive program booster.
- Score: 3.11.
Element No. 8
- What was planned: Quad toeloop + triple toeloop
- What he actually performed: Quad toeloop + single euler+ triple flip
- Even though it wasn’t the planned one, Malinin executed arguably his best element of the program. He switcheed it up with a quad toeloop − his third landed quad jump − and added a euler and triple flip to it, resulting in his highest-scoring jumps.
- Score: 19.54.
Element No. 9
- What was planned: Quad salchow + triple Axel + sequence
- What he actually performed: Double Salchow
- Malinin attempted another quad jump sequence, and it ended in disaster. Not only did he bail on it, lowering it to a double salchow, but he also fell again. He abandoned the rest of the sequence, and since he didn’t land what is a relatively easy jump for skaters, this turned out to be his lowest scored element. This was his final jump, and moment the world realized he would not win gold.
- Score: 0.78.
Element No. 10
- What was planned: Choreo sequence
- What he actually performed: Choreo sequence − Grade 1
- A simple part of the program, Malinin earned a base score. This is where he executed a backflip. Although it’s impressive and challenging and fun for the audience, it does not earn points toward the technical score.
- Score: 4.36.
Element No. 11
- What was planned: Choreo sequence
- What he actually performed: Flying sit spin − Grade 3
- Malinin got another Grade 3 score on an element in the flying sit spin.
- Score: 2.90.
Element No. 12
- What was planned: Change foot combination spin
- What he actually performed: Change foot combination spin − Grade 4
- The last element of Malinin’s program got the highest grade possible with a Grade 4.
- Score: 4.15.
Ilia Malinin free skate score
- Technical score: 76.61, which is 38.07 points lower than gold medal winner Mikhail Shaidorov’s technical socre.
- Component score: 81.72, which is 2.24 points lower than Shaidorov’s components score.
- Deductions: -2.00.
- Free skate score: 156.33, which is 42.31 points lower than Shaidorov’s free skate score.
- Total score: 264.49, which is 27.09 points lower than Shaidorov’s total score.
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