Ilia Malinin overwhelmed by ‘thoughts and memories’ in Olympic free skate

U.S. men’s figure skater Ilia Malinin revealed his mind was flooded with “thoughts and memories” before his performance in the men’s free skating final at the Winter Olympics on Friday.

Malinin, a top candidate to lead the United States to a gold medal, surprisingly fell twice during her routine. He dropped to eighth place and missed the podium.

“Right before I got into my starting pose, a lot of thoughts and memories flooded in and it almost, I think, overwhelmed me a little bit. I’ve been through a lot in my life, a lot of bad and good experiences,” Malinin told reporters after the competition.

“So I feel the pressure, especially of being an Olympic gold medal hopeful. That’s something I can’t control right now.”

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Malinin emphasized the impact of the “pressure of the Olympics” on the first Olympic games.

“The pressure of the Olympics, it’s a really different thing and I think a lot of people don’t understand that. They just understand it from the inside and going into this competition, especially today, I felt really confident, really good,” she said. “But it really went by so fast I didn’t have time to process it.”

As Malinin tried to mentally process what happened Friday, she took solace in knowing she would return to the United States with the team gold medal she contributed to earlier in the week.

“I think it’s definitely positive for me. And honestly, it gives me thoughts to understand why this is happening in the individual event. I think by participating in this competition, I made sure that I was able to prepare myself for at least four programs or four performances,” Malinin said.

“Honestly, I didn’t have time to fully understand what was going on.”

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Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts after competing in men’s singles skating at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on February 13, 2026. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Malinin dominated the short program earlier this week, taking a more than five-point lead into the day with 108.16 points.

But his last performance was his worst.

When her routine began on Friday, Malinin did a quadruple somersault to start but later settled for a single axel. Later it had a double loop instead of a quadruple loop.

He then fell on his quadruple Lutz attempt and fell on another jump shortly after. He scored 156.33 points; That’s a far cry from the world record of 238.24 she set in December and the 200 points she routinely reaches in the free skate.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won the gold medal with a personal best score of 291.58 points. Her score of 198.94 in Friday’s free skate was also the highest score of her career.

Japanese Yuma Kagiyama won the silver medal, while Kagiyama’s teammate Shun Sato won the bronze medal.

Malinin, who regularly posts total scores in the 300s, was content with just 264.49. His personal best is 333.81.

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Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts after the men’s singles skating competition at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on February 13, 2026. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Malinin congratulated his Kazakhstani rival immediately after the end of the event.

While on the bench, Malinin said that if he had been in Beijing four years ago, he would not have skated so badly. Malinin was 17 years old when he was left out of the squad in favor of experienced players. This was a sign of a mental battle, which Malinin confirmed immediately after leaving the ice.

Malinin’s finish sparked widespread disappointment on social media among Team USA and skating fans in general.

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