Winter Olympics: ‘Quad God’ Ilia Malinin looks mortal, but U.S. maintains lead in figure skating team event

MILAN — Even gods can have off nights.

Ilia Malinin was putting on a brave face, saying all the right things in the minutes after his good-but-not-great performance in the men’s short form component of figure skating’s team competition. Standing before a huge media scrum in the mixed zone beneath the bleachers of Assago Ice Skating Arena, Malinin appeared less like the “Quad God” and more like a 21-year-old realizing that there’s no way to truly prepare for the immensity of the Olympics.

Advertisement

“I’ve got to buckle down and see what happens and get better next time,” Malinin said. “We will work it out.”

At his best, Malinin is as good as skating gets, but on Saturday night, Malinin wasn’t at his best. And all of a sudden, the United States’ chase for figure skating gold just got a bit more interesting. A gold medal haul, and a team defense of gold, that seemed so likely before the Games is now not quite such a sure thing.

After the men’s short program and the ice dance free skate, Team USA has amassed 44 points, with Japan in second with 39 and Italy in third with 37. Three events remain: the free skates of the pairs, women and men. Given the records of the United States and Japan, the five-point differential could tighten. Perhaps for that reason, Malinin was somewhat unexpectedly named the men’s representative for Sunday night’s free skate, even though his individual event is just two days later.

The ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, veterans of a combined nine Olympic Games, followed Malinin with an impressive routine. The married couple skated a brilliant bullfight-inspired free dance that earned a 133.23 and landed them atop the ice dance standings.

Advertisement

But Malinin, the “Quad God,” had turned in an unexpectedly rocky performance — by his standards, at least — and finished second in the men’s short program division to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. Malinin’s final score of 98.00 was more than 10 points behind Kagiyama’s first-place 108.67.

“This team event is … about pacing myself correctly,” Malinin said. “I skated today at about 50 percent of my capacity. And that was the plan, in order to pace myself correctly for the individual event.”

Malinin skated into the Milan Cortina Olympics on a two-plus-year winning streak. He hasn’t lost a competition since November 2023, and he’s the two-time reigning world champion and four-time reigning national champion. He’s earned the nickname “Quad God” for his ability to throw down quads of all styles, and he sure seemed as close to invulnerable as an Olympian gets.

Advertisement

But then Malinin has never skated in an Olympics before, and the Olympics does something to everyone. When there’s a gold medal dangling over your head, the lights seem a little brighter, the ice feels a little slicker, the crowd presses in a little closer, even if you’re a champion everywhere else.

“Being here, I try to enjoy every single moment and be grateful for everything,” Malinin said, “because there’s a lot of unexpected things that can happen in life and I’m taking everything to heart.”

The “Quad God” seeming ill at ease on the ice definitely qualifies as “unexpected.” His planned program led off with a quad axel into a triple toe loop, which, if executed, would have been the first quad axel in Olympic history. Instead, he could “only” manage a quad flip — again, judging by the standards Malinin himself has set — and he under-rotated his planned quad lutz. Even a backflip — the first legal backflip in Olympics history — wasn’t enough to salvage the program.

“It was fun,” Malinin said of his backflip. “I mean, come on, the audience just roared and they were just out of control. And that truly just helped me, you know, feel the gratitude of the Olympic stage.”

Advertisement

The team event will conclude Sunday night with the free skates from, in order, the pairs, women and men. Shortly after the end of Saturday’s session, the United States announced that Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea will once again represent Team USA in pairs, Amber Glenn will make her Olympic debut as the team’s women’s skater, and Malinin will once again skate as the team’s men’s representative.

“I think our team is incredibly strong, arguably the strongest it’s ever been,” Chock said. “I have the utmost faith in them, and I’ll be proud of them no matter what the outcome is.”