2026 Olympic Winter Games

Ilia Malinin Drops Out of the Medals in Epic Olympic Collapse, Mikhail Shaiderov Wins Gold with One of the Cleaner Skates of the Evening

(13 February 2026)  Odds-on favorite in the Men's event, American Ilia Malinin stunned the audience, his fellow competitors and himself as he self destructed in the Men's Free Skate, where he placed 15th, and ended up eighth in the final standings.

After landing a solid quad flip, he popped what was likely planned to be a quad Axel.  Later he fell on quad Lutz - with a q-call - that was supposed to be in combination, and popped a quad Salchow to a double and fell.  His total score was nearly 70 points below his season best.  It was his first defeat since November 2023 at the Grand Prix de France, where he place second.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov moved up from fifth place to capture the Gold meal, overcoming a deficit after the short program of 15.22 points

Yuma Kagiyama of Japan placed second to win his second Olympic silver medal, while his teammate Shun Sato took third and the bronze meal. 

Skating to “Confessa” and the “Diva Dance” second in the last warm-up group, Shaiderov, opened with his signature triple Axel - single Euler - quad Salchow combination, followed by qua Lutz with a q-call.  Subsequently he landed three more quads.  He received both a season’s best score and personal best score of 198.64 points in the free.

Mikhail Shaidorov

“These are incredible emotions. I have been working towards this since my childhood,” Shaidorov said. “Today I just wanted to enjoy the moment and do everything I have been working on for all those years. And today I did that.

"I don’t even know how to describe my feelings. Just did everything I can do and apparently life rewarded me.

“I was honestly rooting for each athlete,” he said when asked about watching the competition from the leader’s chair. “I was rooting for Adam, for Yuma, for Ilia. When Ilia started making mistakes, I was surprised. When he congratulated me, he said, ‘You deserve it’.

Shaidorov's victory secured Kazakhstan's first Olympic gold meal in Figure Skating.

The 2022 Olympic silver medalist, Kagiyama, stumbled on his opening quad Salchow, fell on quad flip, and had another major error on quad toe loop. He place only sixth in the Free Skating with 176.99 points, but the strength of his short program allowed him to hold onto second place overall with 280.06 points. 

Yuma Kagiyama

Shun Sato turned in a strong performance to “Firebird” that included a quad Lutz and two quad toe loops.  He move up from a mediocre ninth place performance in the short program to place third in the free skate and finish with 274.90 points. 

"Right now, I don't know if it's a dream or reality. I didn't expect to win a medal and stand here tonight,” Sato commented.

"I was reflecting back on my good performance during the team event, and I just imagined doing well again this time around. That's how the results came out.

"My goal was to get some kind of medal for both the team event and single skating, so I'm really happy that I did meet this goal."

Last to skate was the leader after the short program, Ilia Malinin.  Malinin had admitted to Olympics nerves in the Team competition, but look solid and mentally secure in the short program.  In the six minute warm-up there was no hint of the disaster to come.

“It’s not a pleasant feeling, and I’m still trying to understand exactly what happened,” Malinin said. “But it’s done. I can’t change the outcome. My life has had a lot of ups and downs, and in that moment, everything just felt very overwhelming. I honestly didn’t know how to handle it.”

Ilia Malinin

The outcome paralleled the experience of Nathan Chen in Pyong Chang in 2018, where Chen, expected to take gold in his first Olympics, placed 17th in the short program and placed fifth overal.  Chen went on to rebound from that experience and become Olympic champion in 2022, growing from his earlier Olympic experience.  Malinin might yet have the same career arc, but if two times is the charm it could well have happened earlier, and should have.

Malinin was passed over for the 2022 US Olympic team after placing second at U.S. Nationals, in favor of the beloved Jason Brown who placed fourth.   One has to wonder if U.S. Figure Skating had not succumbed to sentimentality then, and allowed Malinin to gain experience in Beijing, the outcome in Milan might have been different.  Did sentimentality in 2022 cost the U.S. a gold medal in 2026?

Italian Daniel Grassl, who had placed fourth in the Short Program, was not well for the free skate and had major errors on three jump elements and a minor error on a fourth.  He ended in ninth with 263.71 points.

Adam Siao Him Fa of France, who was third in the short program,  like Grassl, had major errors on three jump elements and a minor error on a fourth.  He finished seventh with 269.72 points.

 Korean Junhwan Cha move up from sixth to fourth place with 273.92 points.

"I really gave my best today here,” Cha said. “Even though I made a mistake, I fought through everything else. I gave everything today, so I'm proud of myself that I came here and I didn't give up."

Americans Andrew Torgashev and Maxim Naumov ended up 12th and 20th in the event.