Wu Hao / EPA
Ilia Malinin at the 2026 Winter Olympics final
Two-time world champion is also human. He failed in the individual figure skating final, placing 8th: an inevitable collapse.
Mikhail Shaidorov surprisingly won the gold medal in the individual figure skatingnos 2026 Winter Olympicsin Milan-Cortina.
The other two medals go to Japan: silver for Kagiyama Yuma, bronze for Sato Shun.
I.e, Ilia Malinin was left without any medal. The two-time world champion, the three-time Grand Prix champion, winner of 14 consecutive races, the big favorite for gold… was in the 8th place.
Even after helping the USA win the team title, in the individual final Ilia Malinin failed.
And it didn’t even need much: its biggest competitors had already failed before. But, when it was his turn, and despite having reached the free program first and with a 5-point advantage, He fell twice at the decisive moment and missed other jumps.
The “God of quadruplets”, the only one to be able to land – in international competitions – after four rotations.
But Ilia Malinin showed that he is human.
Could it be from the track? No: ““I’m still trying to understand what happened, something wasn’t right, I still don’t know what it was. I ruined everything. All the pressure, the media, the hope for a gold medal… it was too much to handle”, he said at the time, last Friday.
Three days after a deliberate silence, he spoke about the “invisible battles” he is fighting.
“On the world’s biggest stage, those who appear to be the strongest may be the ones who are fight invisible battles from within“, wrote Ilia Malinin on Instagram.
And he didn’t hide that he remains affected by what happens on the internet: “Even your happiest memories can end up tarnished by the noise. Vile online hate preys on the mind and fear lures you into darkness, no matter how hard you try to maintain sanity amid the unbearable, never-ending pressure.”
“Everything accumulates as these moments pass before your eyes, resulting in a inevitable collapse. This is that version of the story,” added the figure skating superstar.
