What score Ilia Malinin needs to win the figure skating gold medal for Team USA

Ilia Malinin entered the 2026 Olympics as the favorite to win the men's figure skating gold medal.

The day has arrived Friday that the United States superstar will get his chance.

Malinin and the rest of the competition will skate their free programs on Friday evening in Italy (afternoon on the East Coast of the U.S.).

Their free skate score will get added to their short program from earlier in the week to create a composite score that determines who gets on the medal stand.

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Malinin enters Friday with an advantage. He had the best short program score in the competition, which means he starts the day with a lead.

That also means he goes last, not competing until approximately 4:48 p.m. ET. By the time he takes the ice, he will know exactly the score he needs to win.

Before competition gets underway, and with some updates later during the event, this is a look at what Malinin needs to win gold.

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What score does Ilia Malinin need to win gold medal?

As the competition goes along on Friday, it'll become more clear, but even before it begins, we start to get a sense for what Malinin will need to do by showing his lead on his competitors.

In the short program, Malinin scored 108.16.

Next closest was Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, at 103.07. Behind him was France's Adam Siao Him Fa, who had a 102.55.

Beyond that, fourth place was a 93.46, so it really looks like that top-three will be the biggest medal contenders, while someone else would need a huge free skate to catch up.

That means we know that Malinin cannot be outscored by Kagiyama by more than 5.09, and cannot be outscored by Siao Him Fa by more than 5.61.

In the team event, Malinin had the best score in the free skate despite a small slip and fall. Because of the relative difficulty level of his program, he has a leg up. It gives him a great chance to indeed bring home gold.

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