by Henry Muzzy
Coming into the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the U.S. figure skating team was looking super strong. During the competition, they took gold in team figure skating and in Women’s figure skating, with Alysa Liu being crowned olympic champion. As for men’s figure skating, the team was favored to win because of star Ilia Malinin, but no one was prepared for how the competition would end up going.
Ilia was born to two Olympic figure skaters from Kazakhstan. In the last two years (2024 and 2025), he won the World Championship. He was a clear favorite to win the Men’s Single Skating.
Before every run, skaters must submit a plan of what they are going to do. They are graded on both Element Score and Program Score. The Element Score is determined by the degree of difficulty and grade of execution. The judges give a grade of -5 to 5, with the highest and lowest scores thrown out. Each element (jumps, spins) earns its own score. The Program Score is judged on the presentation, including the skater’s composition and skating skills.
Ilia’s planned program was supposed to be the best by far. He included two quad jumps, which are the hardest to learn and execute. He is known for the quad jumps; his nickname is the “Quad God.”
The reason for his disaster came down to two main parts: falls and missed elements. During his routine, he fell twice, earning him negative points in both skating skills and the execution grade. Falling in figure skating is catastrophic, but falling twice pretty much took him out of contention. Another reason for his low score was the missed elements. His planned opening quad axel jump was popped (meaning an under rotation or opening up to land too soon), and it turned into just a single axel. Later in the run, his planned quad loop jump was only a double as he under rotated again.
A combination of poor elements and missed elements led to Malinin finishing in eighth place. He was visibly upset as he left the rink. No one in the arena or in the world would’ve predicted what happened to Ilia Malinin at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
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