Malinin's mistakes open door for Shaidorov
Ilia Malinin, 21, has dominated men's figure skating since making his senior debut in 2021. As the first skater in history to land a quadruple Axel and the men's free skate world record holder, Malinin's performance in the team event was critical in leading the U.S. to gold. After the individual short program, he had a five-point cushion over Japan's Yuma Kagiyama.
But the immense expectations came with intense pressure that the "Quad God" couldn't shake in the free skate. Malinin fumbled numerous of his planned quad jumps, instead executing a single Axel, double loop and double salchow.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov — who had placed 5th after the short — glided to a near-perfect program featuring five quad jumps and only one minor error. His score of 198.64 blew the competition out of the water, resulting in his nation's second Winter Olympic gold.