American Ilia Malinin saw his Olympic dreams go out on a whimper in Friday night’s men’s figure skating final at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
Malinin was the heavy favorite to take home gold after leading the short program, but he suffered two costly falls during his free skate program and ended up skidding to eighth overall. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won a historic gold medal instead following his impressive performance, with Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato placing second and third respectively.
