Ilia Malinin has disastrous meltdown at Olympics, finishes 8th: ‘I blew it’

MILAN — Ilia Malinin fell apart in real time.

The 21-year-old was the gold medal favorite entering 2026 Winter Olympics. He took a more than five-point lead into Friday’s free skate. But the self-proclaimed ‘Quad God’ had a disastrous performance, falling twice, bailing on two jumps that were meant to be quads and suffering an epic meltdown on the sport’s biggest stage.

‘I blew it,’ he said after. ‘That’s honestly the first thing that came to my mind, there’s no way that just happened. I was preparing the whole season, I felt so confident with my programs, so confident with everything. That happened, I have no words, honestly.’

Watch Ilia Malinin Olympics video on Peacock

Ilia Malinin free skate video

NBC broadcasts the Olympics and has replays of every event on TV, Peacock and the full video of Malinin’s routine is already on YouTube.

What happened to Ilia Malinin?

The 21-year-old scored a 156.33 in his disastrous free skate, finishing in eighth place with a total score of 264.49. It’s the first event he’s lost since November 2023, and the first time he didn’t finish in the top three at a competition since March 2022. He didn’t land a single quad Axel the entire competition.

‘I was not expecting that. I felt like going into this competition, I was so ready,’ Malinin said. ‘I just felt ready getting on the ice, … maybe I was too confident.

‘It honestly just happened. I can’t process what just happened. It happens.’

‘I think it was definitely mental. Just now experiencing that Olympic atmosphere, it’s crazy. It’s not like any other competition. It’s really different.’

‘I felt really good this whole day, going really solid, and I just thought that I all I needed to do was go out there and trust the process that I’ve always been doing with every competition,’ he said. ‘But of course, it’s not like any other competitions, it’s the Olympics.”

What Ilia Malinin said on hot mic

As Ilia Malinin sat in the Kiss-and-Cry section, waiting for his free skate score to be read out after his terrible performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics, he was caught on a hot mic talking about how things would have been different had he gone to the 2022 Beijing Games.

‘Beijing, I would not have skated like that,’ he was heard saying. Then, NBC commentator Johnny Weir told viewers what he said: That he would not have skated so terribly had he already had Olympic experience under his belt. 

Malinin could be heard saying: ‘It’s not easy.’ The 21-year-old was later asked about the comment.

‘I think if I went to ’22, then I would have had more experience and know how to handle this Olympic environment,’ he said. ‘But also, I don’t know what the next stages of my life would look like if I went there.’

Men’s singles figure skating results

1. Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan): 291.58 total score, 198.64 free skate, 92.94 short program.
2. Yuma Kagiyama (Japan): 280.06 total score, 176.99 free skate, 103.07 short program.
3. Shun Sato (Japan): 274.90 total score, 186.20 free skate, 88.70 short program.
4. Junhwan Cha (Korea): 273.92 total score, 181.20 free skate, 92.72 short program.
5. Stephen Gogolev (Canada): 273.79 total score, 186.37 free skate, 87.42 short program.
6. Petr Gumennik (Neutral Athlete): 271.21 total score, 184.49 free skate, 86.72 short program.
7. Adam Siao Him Fa (France): 269.27 total score, 166.72 free skate, 102.55 short program.
8. Ilia Malinin (United States): 264.49 total score, 156.33 free skate, 108.16 short program.
9. Daniel Grassl (Italy):263.71 total score, 170.25 free skate, 93.46 short program.
10. Nika Egadze (Georgia): 260.27 total score, 175.16 free skate, 85.11 short program.
11. Kevin Aymoz (France): 259.94 total score, 167.30 free skate, 92.64 short program.
12. Andrew Torgashev (United States): 259.06 total score, 170.12 free skate, 88.94 short program.
13. Kao Miura (Japan): 246.88 total score, 170.11 free skate, 76.77 short program.
14. Lukas Britschigi (Switzerland): 246.64 total score, 165.77 free skate, 80.87 short program.
15. Matteo Rizzo (Italy): 243.18 total score, 158.88 free skate, 84.30 short program.
16. Aleksandr Selevko (Estonia): 236.82 total score, 154.80 free skate, 82.02 short program.
17. Boyang Jin (China): 229.08 total score, 142.53 free skate, 86.55 short program.
18. Deniss Vasiljevs (Latvia): 226.46 total score, 144.02 free skate, 82.44 short program.
19. Kyrylo Marsak (Ukraine): 224.17 total score, 137.28 free skate, 86.89 short program.
20. Maxim Naumov (United States): 223.36 total score, 137.71 free skate, 85.65 short program.
21. Vladimir Samoilov (Poland): 222.25 total score, 144.68 free skate, 77.57 short program.
22. Donovan Carrillo (Mexico): 219.06 total score, 143.50 free skate, 75.56 short program.
23. Yu-Hsiang Li (Chinese Taipei): 214.33 total score, 141.92 free skate, 72.41 short program.
24. Adam Hagara (Slovakia): 202.38 total score, 122.08 free skate, 80.30 short program.