American superstar Ilia Malinin missed out on his chance for individual Olympic glory on Friday night when he stunningly placed eighth in the men’s free skate final at the Milan Cortina Games.
Malinin entered Friday’s competition as the clear favorite holding a roughly five-point lead, but he suffered two falls and made other uncharacteristic errors that led to him tumbling down the scoreboard and off the podium.
Malinin was understandably emotional after his disappointing skate and looked upset with himself—he had, after all, just put together one of his worst career performances when it mattered the most on the sport’s biggest stage. Any athlete would’ve wanted to get away from the press and privately gather their thoughts and feelings, but Malinin was pulled almost immediately for an interview with NBC after the winners were announced.
U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin spoke with @nbcwashington following his 8th-place finish in the Winter Olympics. pic.twitter.com/m2GfwS0F5D
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) February 13, 2026
Given the high emotions of the moment, Malinin could have brushed off the mic or given curt responses, but he instead took the time to thoughtfully answer each of the reporter’s questions.
Fans thought it was an incredibly mature move from the 21-year-old:
As a sports PR professional, that was impressive to watch. Just minutes after failing to medal as the favorite, on Int’l TV in front of millions, American figure skater Ilia Malinin still stopped to do his post-skate NBC interview. Incredible poise for a 21-yr old. #Olympics2026 pic.twitter.com/0uvvMUeTvi
— Gabriel Gabor (@MLSGabor) February 13, 2026
“I’m heartbroken. I don’t think I was prepared for the atmosphere of the Olympics” Ilia Malinin tells me just now.
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) February 13, 2026
He’s obviously gutted. Told me he’s in shock. And can’t believe that just happened.
A thoughtful interview from a 21-year-old who is reeling.
Credit to Ilia Malinin for doing that interview with NBC minutes after what has to be one of the worst moments of his skating career.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 13, 2026
Said, "I blew it."
Olympians have failed before and come back from it 4 years later to redeem themselves. That's his next challenge.
Respect to Ilia Malinin for doing an interview seconds after a heartbreaking skate and missing the podium in his lone chance for a gold medal in four years.
— Al Butler (@ALaboutSports) February 13, 2026
Not sure I've seen anything as shocking as what we just saw from Ilia Malinin. Goes to show everyone is human. Credit him for manning up for an interview afterward. That had to be difficult.
— Michelle Gardner (@MGardnerSports) February 13, 2026
The didn’t need to interview Ilia Malinin one minute after he just had the worst skate of his life. He handled that really well. I wouldn’t be able to talk #Olympics https://t.co/w1re6zxhZY
— emilykmm (@emilykmm) February 13, 2026
What Ilia Malinin Said About His Brutal Olympic Performance in Men’s Singles
As for what Malinin said in his interview, the American star admitted the intense pressure of the Olympics may have gotten to him.
“It was a weird feeling just going into the program, I just had so many thoughts and memories flooding ... I think it may have overwhelmed a little bit,” Malinin said. “Just the pressure of especially being that Olympic gold medal hopeful, it’s just something I can’t control now.”
Malinin also went into some depth about his free skate program specifically and where it all went wrong. Per his routine, Malinin was meant to perform his signature move, the quad axel, on his second jump of his program, but he pulled out of it and just did a single axel instead.
“I wouldn’t say it necessarily threw me off,” Malinin said, when asked about missing the quad axel. “I knew I didn’t need a perfect program. I still could have had a really good skate. But then more mistakes happened. I don’t know exactly what it was specifically — I’m still trying to understand. So I don’t really have a clear answer yet.”
He also spoke about the positives from his final performance, despite failing to medal in Milan:
“Well, putting all the negatives aside, the atmosphere was really incredible,” said Malinin. “The support — honestly, even with that skate — the crowd never stopped cheering. They were supporting me the whole time, and that really meant a lot.”
When probed about when exactly his skate started to go awry, Malinin said he was still processing it and needed more time to reflect.
“It’s not a pleasant feeling, and I’m still trying to understand exactly what happened. But it’s done. I can’t change the outcome,” continued Malinin. “Of course, a lot of people would go back and change it if they could. My life has had a lot of ups and downs, and in that moment, everything just felt very overwhelming. I honestly didn’t know how to handle it.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fans Loved What Ilia Malinin Did After Brutal Finish in Men’s Figure Skating Final.
