By Lori Ewing
MILAN, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The pressure had been building, the glare of Olympic expectation, the scrutiny of a sport that demands not only athletic precision but artistic perfection. And on Friday, all of it came crashing down on Ilia Malinin.
The American phenom, considered virtually untouchable and a near-certain gold medallist, unravelled in stunning fashion in the men’s free programme at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
Malinin landed only three of his seven planned quadruple jumps, fell twice, and watched in disbelief as more than two years of competitive dominance dissolved into an eighth‑place finish.
“In the moment, it definitely felt like not only nerves, but maybe the ice was also not the best condition for what I would like to have,” he told a throng of reporters, half a dozen deep. “That’s not an excuse, we’re all put in that situation, but the nerves were just so overwhelming.
“Going into my starting pose, all the traumatic moments of my life really just started flooding my head. So many negative thoughts rushed in, and I just did not handle it.”
Only two months ago, the 21-year-old laid down a jaw-dropping performance at the Grand Prix Final, landing seven quads, including the quadruple Axel, to smash his own world record score in the free programme.
On Friday, his planned quad Axel – a jump only he has ever landed in competition – turned into a single, prompting gasps from the crowd. He ended up getting a score of 156.33 that was a shocking 80-plus points less than that stunning Grand Prix skate.
The two-times world champion, who was not nearly at his best in the team event either, admitted he “still hasn’t been able to process” what transpired, despite feeling prepared and confident heading into the day.
Some of the quads, he noted, even felt “ideal.” But something deeper was shifting beneath the surface.
Asked to explain the pressure of being a huge Olympic favourite in his Games debut, he said: “It’s not easy, being the Olympic gold hopeful is really just a lot to deal with, especially for my age.
“It’s not like any other competition, it’s the Olympics… it was really just something that overwhelmed me,” he said.
CASCADE OF MISTAKES
Taking a five-point lead into the free skate, Malinin could still have won with a half-decent performance as numerous others stumbled through shaky programmes.
But what unfolded on the ice was a cascade of mistakes and he held his head in his hands in disbelief after the music stopped.
The camera panned to gymnastics great Simone Biles — who has also stumbled under the harsh glare of Olympic expectations — on her feet applauding the American.
“The noise itself is just a lot to handle,” Malinin said. “Social media has its ups, but it really has its downs. People don’t realise the pressure and nerves that happen from the inside at the Olympics. I felt like I had no control.”
When the skate was over, Malinin sought out the eventual champion Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan for a hug.
“I went and congratulated him,” he said. “Watching him in the locker room, I was so proud of him, I’d heard he had not had a good season.”
Having arrived in Milan with stratospheric expectations of becoming the first skater to land a quad Axel at an Olympics and with one hand supposedly already on the men’s title thanks to his 14-competition winning streak, Malinin will head back home without either accolade.
In the quiet aftermath of the most painful competition of his career, he was already turning towards what comes next.
“Honestly, it’s just something where you take what happened and what you learned, and decide what you want to do for the future and how to approach things,” Malinin said. “I can’t go back and change the outcome, even though I would love to. From here, it’s just regrouping, figuring out what to do next.”
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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