Figure skating super‑supreme Ilia Malinin — the one and only “Quad God” — took a disastrous tumble in a shocking collapse at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. The American phenom made grave mistakes not once but twice during his free skate, knocking him out of medal contention and landing him in a heartbreaking 8th place finish.
And for anyone who doesn’t follow figure skating closely, here’s how the scoring works: Olympic placements are based on a combined total of two programs — the Short Program and the Free Skate. The Short Program comes first and sets the rankings, but the Free Skate carries more points and can completely shake up the standings. Malinin’s earlier score stayed on the board, but the free‑skate errors dragged down his overall total, which is why he fell so far in the final results.
And when you think about it, that makes the whole thing even more devastating. Malinin succeeded in all the previous skates — the training season, the qualifiers, the Short Program — only to have the final skate be the one that unraveled everything. Two falls in the Free Skate can erase an entire year of dominance. That’s the brutal beauty of the sport: one program can lift you to gold or drop you straight out of the medals.
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If Malinin returns to the Olympics in 2030, he’ll be about 25 years old, which is still prime time for a men’s singles skater. Most male champions peak between 19 and 23, but plenty stay competitive into their late 20s. And yes — some even win gold later in life. The legendary Evgeni Plushenko famously won Olympic gold at 31 in the team event, making him one of the oldest male champions in modern figure skating. It’s rare, but not impossible. The door is still open for Malinin.
At just 21 years old, he has time, talent, and the technical arsenal to come back stronger — if the universe and Mother Nature allow.
But today belongs to a new champion. A massive bravo‑bravissima to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who delivered when it mattered most and claimed the Olympic gold medal.
Do you think Malinin will come back stronger for the 2030 Games? Let us know what you think he’ll need to do to make a come back below!
