The gold medal in Men’s Figure Skating was Ilia Malinin’s for the taking. Taking to the ice for the final routine of the night in the men’s free skate, the path was clear for an easy evening, prompting Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir to opine whether or not Malinin would really deliver his high-difficulty performance, or coast to the gold on an easier plan. Five minutes later jaws were on the floor, as Malinin had one of the most profound collapses in Winter Olympics history.
Initially, there was the belief that Malinin, The Quad God, could bust out as many as seven quads in his free skate performance, something that had never been achieved before. However, the stakes of the skate plummeted after Malinin’s biggest competition, Japan’s Yumi Kagiyama, had three incomplete landings and was sitting in second place. This meant that Malinin could essentially phone it in, and still win gold.
Taking to the ice looking relaxed and in control, Malinin completed his first quad toe with ease. Then everything went wrong. He attempted his iconic quadruple axel, but was forced to bail out and only completed a single. Another jump approached, this time a quad salchow — but once again Malinin bailed out and completed a single. Points were being shaved off at a dramatic rate. Then the unthinkable happened as he lined up for a quad-triple combination, bailing out once more to settle for a double, then falling on the landing.
To give you a sense of how wild this was in real time, I present you with my reaction from our Slack.
Despite entering the free skate with a five point lead, Malinin turned in the 15th ranked free skating score with a 156.33, causing him to finish in 8th — well off the podium. It gave way to a Cinderella story, with Kazakstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who was 5th after the short program, rising all the way to gold and taking the medal everyone expected would belong to Malinin.
Leaving the ice distraught, The Quad God knew he wasn’t going to medal at his first Olympic games in the individual event. Stunned, he was overheard telling his father “I don’t understand. I’ve never skated like that.”
It was one of the most dramatic collapses we’ve seen in Winter Olympics history. A devastating end to the games for a legend of figure skating. Malinin will always have his team gold, but this loss as an individual champion will haunt him until the next games.
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