02/13/26 10:08:00
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02/13 10:07 CST American 'Quad God' Ilia Malinin carries 5-point lead into the
free skate at Milan Cortina Olympics
American 'Quad God' Ilia Malinin carries 5-point lead into the free skate at
Milan Cortina Olympics
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
MILAN (AP) --- Ilia Malinin, widely considered the best figure skater of this
generation, could take a big step toward going down as one of the greatest ever
Friday night down when the American goes for the gold medal in the men's free
skate at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The 21-year-old known as the "Quad God" has a five-point lead over Japan's Yuma
Kagiyama and France's Adam Siao Him Fa after the short program. That would be a
big margin for anyone, but it could be insurmountable given who is in first
place.
Malinin is undefeated over two-plus years, a stretch of 14 consecutive
victories in full competitions. That includes the past four U.S. championships,
the last two world titles, and a host of world records --- most crucially, the
best mark ever for a free skate, a massive score of 238.24 points that pushed
him to a 30-point victory at the Grand Prix Final in December.
Yagiyama, the last man to beat Malinin, was second that day. Siao Him Fa
finished in fifth.
"Being the favorite is one thing," Malinin said after his short program, "but
actually getting it done and doing it under pressure and having the skate of
your life to earn that medal is another thing. I don't want to get too ahead of
myself and say that it's guaranteed that I'm getting that gold medal. Because,
of course, I still have to put in the work."
In truth, he doesn't have to do much more than show up.
That's because the longer nature of the free skate plays even more to his
advantage, since it contains seven jumping passes instead of the three in the
short program. He has a record-tying seven quadruple jumps scheduled for his
program; by comparison, Kagiyama and Siao Him Fa have four in each other free
skates.
"It's not so much the point total, it's the difference between the placements,"
said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion. "Say it's football. You win by
seven points, that's a touchdown; that's good. If you win by 10 points, that's
a two-possession victory. You kind of dominated, right? He is winning
competitions by 50 points or more. That's like, seven touchdowns."
The real drama might not be whether Malinin wins but whether he lands the first
quad axel in the Olympics.
The sons of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, the
ever-confident Malinin is the only person ever to land the jump in competition.
The reason it is so difficult is that the axel begins facing forward, whereas
the other five main jumps in figure skating start facing backward, and that
adds another half revolution to the quad axel.
"I'm hoping that I'll feel good enough to do it," Malinin acknowledged. "But of
course I always prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in
the right mindset where I'll feel really confident to go into it."
Malinin already has one gold medal from the team event, where he finished a
surprising second to Kagiyama in the short program but beat fellow Japanese
star Shun Sato in the free skate. That head-to-head win allowed the Americans
to defend their team title.
Afterward, Malinin admitted that the pressure of the Olympics had gotten to him
in his debut. But those nerves settled during his free skate, and by the time
of his individual short program Tuesday night, his fearlessness and spunk was
back again.
"Now I feel like I've taken over that fight that I had in the team event,"
Malinin said, "so now I can really just focus solely on that free program, and
let everything happen naturally."
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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