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When asked on NBC's broadcast about his immediate thoughts about his performance in Friday's men's figure skating final, Ilia Malinin put it bluntly: "I blew it."
The United States' young gold medal favorite in the event, who has exploded in fame for his acrobatic tricks and "Quad God" nickname that came along with it, was left stunned in his final competition in the 2026 Winter Olympics. After leading the way in the short program portion of the men's figure skating event on Thursday, Malinin collapsed on Friday, posting a score of 156.33 in the free skate to fall from the podium altogether.
After entering as a huge gold medal favorite, Malinin did not even secure any medal, one of the most shocking results from the 2026 Games. It was the result of a shaky performance, especially by his standards — from two falls, to limited execution of his impressive jumps, Malinin's mistakes led to his disappointing result at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Here's a look at the mistakes in Malinin's free skate performance that dropped him to eighth place.
MORE 2026 OLYMPICS: Live medal tracker | Viewer's guide | Day-by-day schedule
Ilia Malinin falls
Malinin certainly came into Friday's free skate performance with some leeway, especially if he was aiming for any medal, not just gold. He had a score of 108.16 in Thursday's short program, which was around five points better than any other skater. The second-place finisher in the short program, Yuma Kagiyama from Japan, also had one fall in his performance Friday — meaning that as long as Malinin had a steady skate, based on his history, he could lock in a gold medal.
One fall for Malinin was already atypical, but overcome-able. But with two stumbles, in almost the exact same part of the ice, he doomed his free-skate score. NBC's broadcast estimated a lost 72 points alone from his two falls, including on a quad lutz.
The Fall of Ilia Malinin. Two falls in nearly identical locations. pic.twitter.com/7Khxd8Qmcu
— Steve Futterman (@sfutterman) February 13, 2026Malinin, who immediately put his face in his hands after his performance and was visibly distraught, then said he was feeling the mental pressure put on him.
"The pressure of the Olympics, it's really something different," Malinin said in the moments after his skate. "Going into this competition, especially today, I felt really confident. ... it really just went by so fast that I didn't have time to process what really went down."
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, 2026MORE: Why is Ilia Malinin called the Quad God?
Quad axel becomes single axel
Malinin's performance on Friday also started off rough, based on expectations. Right towards the beginning of his 4.5-minute skate, he had a planned quadruple axel — which would have been the first in Olympic history — that became just a single axel.
After a ton of hype entering his event for his "Quad God" nickname, making a trick that was once thought of as impossible into a regular occurence, Malinin didn't land his famed quad axel.
Malinin needed a 183.43 to win a gold medal, but managed just a score of 156.35.
“The pressure of the Olympics really gets you. People say that there’s an Olympic curse, that the Olympic gold medal favorite is always going to skate bad at the Olympics. So that’s what happens,” Malinin said afterward, per CNN. "It’s almost like I wasn’t aware of where I was in the program. Usually, I have more time and more feeling of how it is, but this time, it all went by so fast, and I really didn’t have time to make those changes or make that process different.”
MORE: Explaining the complication of a figure skating quadruple axel
Other failed jumps
The quad-turned-single axel at the beginning of Malinin's performance wasn't his only failed jumps. He also had a quadruple loop that became just a double. In his entire performance, Malinin executed just three of his seven planned quadruple jumps.
It all resulted in an eight-place finish for Malinin, with Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov emerging for gold.
"I blew it," Malinin said on the broadcast afterwards. "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."
Still, Malinin showed plenty of respect afterward, congratulating Shaidorov.
Despite the heartbreaking finish, Ilia Malinin went over to congratulate the men's singles final gold medal winner Mikhail Shaidorov 👏 pic.twitter.com/Kcti5qFX0I
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) February 13, 2026Singles figure skating final standings
Here are the full results from the men's figure skating event.
| Skater | Nation | Short Program Score | Free Skate Score | Total |
| Mikhail Shaidrov | Kazakhstan | 92.94 (5) | 198.64 | 291.58 (1) |
| Yuma Kagiyama | Japan | 103.07 (2) | 176.99 | 280.06 (2) |
| Shun Sato | Japan | 88.70 (9) | 186.20 | 274.90 (3) |
| Junhwan Cha | South Korea | 92.72 (6th) | 181.20 | 273.92 (4) |
| Stephen Gogolev | Canada | 87.41 (10th) | 186.37 | 273.78 (5) |
| Petr Gumennik | AIN | 86.72 (12th) | 184.49 | 271.21 (6) |
| Adam Siaho Him Fa | France | 102.55 (3rd) | 166.72 | 269.27 (7) |
| Ilia Malinin | USA | 108.16 (1st) | 156.33 | 264.49 (8) |
| Daniel Grassl | Italy | 93.46 (4th) | 170.25 | 263.71 (9) |
| Nika Egadze | Georgia | 85.11 (15th) | 175.16 | 260.27 (10) |
| Kevin Aymoz | France | 92.64 (7th) | 167.30 | 259.94 (11) |
| Andrew Torgashev | USA | 88.94 (8th) | 170.12 | 259.06 (12) |
| Kao Miura | Japan | 76.77 (22nd) | 170.11 | 246.88 (13) |
| Lukas Britschgi | Switzerland | 80.87 (19th) | 165.77 | 246.64 (14) |
| Matteo Rizzo | Italy | 84.30 (16th) | 158.88 | 243.18 (15) |
| Aleksandr Selevko | Estonia | 82.02 (18th) | 154.80 | 236.82 (16) |
| Boyang Jin | China | 86.55 (13th) | 142.53 | 229.08 (17) |
| Deniss Vasiljevs | Latvia | 82.44 (17th) | 144.02 | 226.46 (18) |
| Kyrylo Marsak | Ukraine | 86.89 (11th) | 137.28 | 224.17 (19) |
| Maxim Naumov | USA | 85.65 (14th) | 137.71 | 223.36 (20) |
| Vladimir Samoilov | Poland | 77.57 (21st) | 144.68 | 222.25 (21) |
| Donovan Carrillo | Mexico | 75.56 (23rd) | 143.50 | 219.06 (22) |
| Yu-Hsiang | Chinese Taipei | 72.41 (24th) | 141.92 | 214.33 (23) |
| Adam Hagara | Slovakia | 80.30 (20th) | 122.08 | 202.38 (24) |
MORE: How does figure skating scoring work?
Does Ilia Malinin have an Olympic medal?
The good news for Malinin, despite his struggles on Friday, is that he will be leaving Milan with a gold medal. He helped the United States win the figure skating team event, finishing second in the short program and first in the free program.
That gold medal was Malinin's first Olympic medal; the 2026 games marked his debut in the Games, as he was left off the 2022 figure skating team at age 17 despite winning silver at the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Malinin does have a gold medal to his name, but he came into Friday with a heavy chance to win a second. Instead, he'll be leaving Italy with just the team gold victory.
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 8, 2026
English (US)