Why Ilia Malinin's fall didn't matter in winning U.S. team gold medal anyway

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Ilia Malinin fell.

It didn't matter.

The United States won the team event figure skating gold medal anyway, because no one does what the 21-year old U.S. superstar does.

Malinin's score of 200.03 finished in first place for the free skate men's portion of the team event.

That was enough to hold off Japan's Shun Sato after the two countries entered tied at 59 team points apiece.

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Why did Ilia Malinin win even with a fall?

The difference for Malinin and all other competitors is his choreography and technical difficulty.

Sato had a cleaner routine, but Malinin's technical and choreographic difficult made up for it.

That's how the scoring works, and it allows Malinin to make up for slight mistakes.

On one of his early maneuvers in Sunday's competition, Malinin's skate skidded out from underneath him, and he had to use his hands to catch himself.

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But because of the combinations he got into the rest of the way, he had the most difficult routine anyway.

And because Malinin nailed the rest of it, he had done enough to emerge victorious.

He'll want to do even better in the individual competition, but on this day, he did enough for he and his teammates to earn gold together.