Malinin Stuns in Olympic Collapse as Shydorov Takes Gold (Full Transcript)
[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Maybe the biggest shock of these 2026 Winter Games Team USA figure skating sensation Ilya Malinin, the overwhelming favorite to win men's figure skating gold, failing to even medal. He finished eighth. You hardly ever see Malinin fall. He fell twice. He hadn't lost competition in more than two years. After he came off the ice, he said, I blew it. It was 21-year-old Mikhail Shydorov of Kazakhstan taking the gold. He learned to skate at a shopping center. He finished second to Malinin at the World Championships last year, but comes out of nowhere, out of fifth place heading into the free skate to claim gold here at the Winter Olympics in Italy. It's just Kazakhstan's second winter gold ever. Now the 21-year-old Malinin said afterwards that he could not process what had just happened. Maybe he was too confident and said that nothing is like the Olympic stage. He's nicknamed the quad god, the only person to ever pull off a quad axle in international competition. But at his first ever Olympics, the quad god looked mortal. It's the biggest upset so far at these 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
- Ilya Malinin, the heavy favorite, fell twice and finished eighth, missing the podium.
- Malinin had been unbeaten for more than two years and called his Olympic performance a blown opportunity.
- Mikhail Shydorov of Kazakhstan rallied from fifth heading into the free skate to claim gold.
- Shydorov’s win delivered only Kazakhstan’s second Winter Olympic gold medal ever.
- The segment underscores the heightened pressure and unpredictability of the Olympic stage.