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Ilia Malinin misses Olympic podium in men’s free skate

American figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin fell twice in a disastrous free skate. Here's what happened.

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We stopped Victoria and Paul Ferguson at an Olympic fan zone in Milan because we were admiring their vintage Olympics jackets. Then they dropped some breaking personal news on us. We’re actually here on our honeymoon. It’s *** big thing for us, yeah. The Texas couple watched the opening ceremony and then opened *** new chapter together, celebrating their love. Doing something they love. He’s *** big Olympics guy and so he was like, Olympics, Italy, and I was like, yep, I’m there. Let’s go. It has been so fun. It has been like *** big dream come true for sure. Dream come true is the same way Mitch Monaco from Montana describes his Olympic experience so far. Our family’s from Italy originally and so then when they announced that they were doing the winner. Olympics here, we’re like, we’re doing it. Absolutely. Mitch, his brother Mike, do I need to smile? I don’t know what to do with it. And their best friend Chase have *** look for the Olympics. Mustache crew going for it. Got it. So why are they all stashed up? My mom hates when we have mustaches, so we’re like, all the pictures while we’re here, we got to rock the mustaches, just go for it and enjoy it.

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American figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin fell twice in a disastrous free skate that sent him tumbling all the way off the podium at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Friday night, allowing Mikhail Shaidorov to Kazakhstan to claim a stunning gold medal.Malinin, who led by a comfortable margin after the short program, merely had to deliver a mediocre performance to add individual gold to the gold medal he won in the team event. Instead, the 21-year-old was trying to fight back tears after one of the worst nights of his career, one that left a star-packed crowd inside Milano Ice Arena sitting in stunned silence.Shaidorov finished with a career-best 291.58 points to give his nation its first gold medal of the Winter Games, while Yuma Kagiyama earned his second consecutive Olympic silver medal and Japanese teammate Shun Sato took bronze.Then there was Malinin, who fell all the way to eighth place. He finished with 264.49 points, ending a two-plus year unbeaten streak that covered 14 full competitions, including the past two world championships that he won with ease. PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

American figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin fell twice in a disastrous free skate that sent him tumbling all the way off the podium at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Friday night, allowing Mikhail Shaidorov to Kazakhstan to claim a stunning gold medal.

Malinin, who led by a comfortable margin after the short program, merely had to deliver a mediocre performance to add individual gold to the gold medal he won in the team event. Instead, the 21-year-old was trying to fight back tears after one of the worst nights of his career, one that left a star-packed crowd inside Milano Ice Arena sitting in stunned silence.

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Ilia Malinin

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Ilia Malinin

getty images

Ilia Malinin

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Shaidorov finished with a career-best 291.58 points to give his nation its first gold medal of the Winter Games, while Yuma Kagiyama earned his second consecutive Olympic silver medal and Japanese teammate Shun Sato took bronze.

Then there was Malinin, who fell all the way to eighth place. He finished with 264.49 points, ending a two-plus year unbeaten streak that covered 14 full competitions, including the past two world championships that he won with ease.

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3:39 pm, Mar 19, 2026
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