U.S. star Malinin falls twice in free skate, giving Kazakhstan’s Shaidorov improbable Olympic gold
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Ilia Malinin of the United States failed to make the Olympic podium after a disastrous free program performance in the men’s singles event at the Milano Cortina Games on Friday.
The 21-year-old American star fell twice, tumbling to eighth position overall.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan claimed the gold medal while Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato won silver and bronze, respectively.
Canada’s Stephen Gogolev posted the second-best score (186.37) with his performance, finishing fifth overall.
Toronto’s Stephen Gogolev had the second best score in the men’s free program with 186.37 points, to finish in fifth place overall at Milano Cortina 2026. It’s the best finish for a Canadian male singles figure skater since Patrick Chan won silver in 2014.
In a surprising final flight of free programs, Shaidorov won Kazakhstan’s first ever gold medal in figure skating, putting on the performance of a lifetime and scoring an all-time career high of 198.64 in the free program and 291.58 overall.
The 21-year-old who skated to Confessa, The Diva Dance by Dimash Qudaibergen came into the free programs in fifth place.
Mikhail Shaidorov became the first figure skater from Kazakhstan to win an Olympic gold medal, and only the second to win a medal after the late Denis Ten claimed Olympic bronze in 2014.
‘I blew it’
Malinin needed to do very little to win the gold medal, given his dominance over the sport and undefeated record over the past two seasons.
But Malinin struggled early on in the performance, failing to complete his quadruple axel and the falling twice halfway through the performance, losing momentum.
The 21-year-old has the world record for the free program with 238.24 points but only scored 156.33, with an overall score of 264.49 to finish in eight place.
“I blew it,” Malinin told NBC.
“That’s honestly the first thing that came to my mind. There’s no way that just happened. I was preparing the whole season and was so confident in my program, so confident with everything. I have no words really.”
Japan’s Kagiyama defending his silver medal from Beijing 2022, even while appearing to struggle through his free program, including a fall on his quadruple flip.
Kagiyama scored 176.99 in the free program and 280.06 to hold onto second place while his teammate Shun scored 186.20 in the free program and 274.90 overall to move from ninth place to claim the bronze medal.
Canada’s Gogolev scores career-best
Canada’s Stephen Gogolev topped off a spectacular first-Olympic Games appearance with a career best performance in the free program,
Gogolev improved upon his personal best set in the team event on Sunday, scoring 186.37 – nearly 15 points higher – and setting an overall best score of 273.78 to finish in fifth.
This is the highest finish for a Canadian at the Olympic games in men’s singles since Patrick Chan won silver at the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014.
“I’m kind of speechless right now,” Gogolev told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux on Friday.
“I knew if I skated well I could be in the top ten, but I think it turned out to be a bit better than that.”
Skating to Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninov, the 21-year-old from Toronto put on a quality performance, hitting almost all of his jumps clean and with precision, including his three quads.
Gogolev came into the Olympic Games ranked 41st in the world this season, according to the ISU world rankings.
When it comes to what’s next for the young Canadian skater, Gogolev said, “this is part of the beginning.”
“We’ll see what happens next,” he said.
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