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The Winter Olympics has seen its fair share of twists and turns this week, but none come close to Ilia Malinin’s shock downfall in the men’s single skating final, with Clare Balding left at a loss for words

Clare Balding was left flabbergasted at Ilia Malinin’s eighth-place finish in the final of the men’s single skating at the Winter Olympics. That’s given the Team USA star was slated as an overwhelming favourite for a gold medal.

Despite his most fierce challengers preceding his time on the ice, giving him what should have been a clear pathway to at least a podium place, the 21-year-old suffered a number of high profile mistakes under immense pressure. As a result of falling twice, Malinin tallied a total of 264.49 – his lowest free skate score in years.

As a result, Malinin sunk to eighth in the standings, while Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov secured gold with a score of 291.58. Japan’s Yugi Kagiyama and Shun Sato secured silver and bronze respectively, with scores of 280.06 and 274.90.

READ MORE: Clare Balding steps in as Winter Olympics gold medallist breaks down on BBC coverageREAD MORE: Lindsey Vonn gives health update after horror Winter Olympics crash amid amputation fears

Reacting to Malinin’s performance, Balding was left stunned. Speaking to BBC Sport, she said: “We didn’t expect that anything could happen to Ilia Malinin but it did – and he will leave these Games without a medal.”

BBC commentator, Kat Downes, meanwhile, was also astounded at Malinin’s fumble. She added: “This is taking some computing from everybody.

“The ‘quadgod’ has fallen. Beaten for the first time in two years, the gold that was supposed to be his. That was supposed to be the most predictable gold of this games but Ilia Malinin has fallen to eighth.”

Elsewhere, Olympic gold medallist, Robin Cousins, picked problems with a sloppy performance on the skater’s part on the whole, with a number of errors outside his falls. He said: “No one has ever seen this from him Ilia Malinin.

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“When he executes, you can see how easy it is for him. There’s so many questions about those elements that are being reviewed.

“Underrotated which caused the fall. Even the landing of the backflip wasn’t the best.”

Despite being visibly upset with his own result, Malinin showed humility by quickly congratulating Shaidorov on his win, the two spotted embracing one another after the results were read. Speaking in the aftermath of the event, meanwhile, Malinin said it was a difficult night on the ice to process.

He explained: “I was not expecting that. I felt like going into this competition, I was so ready. I just felt ready getting on the ice, but I think maybe that have been the reason that maybe I was too confident that I was (going to) go well.

“It honestly just happened. I can’t process what just happened. It happens. I think it was definitely mental. Just now experiencing that Olympic atmosphere, it’s crazy. It’s not like any other competition. It’s really different.”

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Feb. 4 (UPI) — Fulton County, Georgia, filed a motion in federal court on Wednesday demanding the return of election materials taken from the county by the FBI.

The motion was filed under seal, said Jessica Corbitt, a spokesperson for the county, to The New York Times. It also asks for the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant to be unsealed.

Robb Pitts, chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said at a press conference Wednesday that the motion was a way to uphold the Constitution and the rights of Fulton County voters.

“We will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections,” he said. “Our Constitution itself is at stake in this fight.”

Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the motion is important to the people of his county because “actions like this mass seizure risk sowing seeds of distrust in the election process.”

“This morning’s filing could not have come fast enough; justice delayed is justice denied,” Arrington said in a statement to USA Today. “The people of Fulton County deserve justice now, and that’s why I pushed so hard to get this motion filed as soon as possible.”

On Jan. 28, the FBI seized large quantities of materials from the Election Hub and Operations Center in Union City, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. They specifically took items from the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump has claimed he won, despite a lack of evidence.

Fulton County, which makes up a large portion of Atlanta, is a strongly Democratic county and is the most populous in the state.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present at the raid, and lawmakers have demanded to know why. She responded that Trump had requested that she be there.

In a letter to Rep. James Himes, D-Conn., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Gabbard defended her presence.

“My presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence, foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity,” she said.

The Times reported that a day after the raid, Gabbard facilitated a phone call between her, Trump and the FBI agents involved.

“Tulsi Gabbard has no legal role in domestic law enforcement, yet 5 days ago she participated in an FBI raid of Fulton County, Georgia’s, election office — the center of Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories,” Warner said on X on Monday.

“And now we find out that she orchestrated a call between Trump and the FBI agents conducting the raid? Something’s not passing the smell test …,” he said.

Trump has recently said that he wants to “nationalize” the upcoming midterm elections, though he has no legal authority to do so.

The FBI agents loaded three box trucks of evidence from the election facility. Fulton County officials said that more than 20 pallets of ballots, election tape and equipment were taken, but they don’t have a list of items from the Department of Justice, The Times reported.

“We don’t even have copies of what they took, so it’s a problem,” Pitts said. He added that the county wants the items back “so we can take an inventory” of what was taken.

“We don’t know where they are. We don’t know, really, who has them,” The Times reported he said. “We don’t know what they’re doing with them. Are they being tampered with? I can use my imagination, and I would certainly hope not. But we just – we don’t know.”

Pitts mentioned Trump’s comments about taking over the elections in about 15 states.

“We’ll be the test case,” he said. “If they’re successful in Georgia — Fulton County, Georgia, in particular — the others on that list of 15 plus states, they should be aware.”

He said the raid was “probably the first step in whatever they’re going to do in order to depress voter participation, voter registration, making whatever changes they think are necessary to help their case in 2026, but more importantly, in 2028.”

Radio 2 DJ Vernon Kay has spoken about meeting up with fellow Children in Need fundraisers has he spends more time looking back at his illustrious and eventful career

BBC Radio 2’s Vernon Kay fought back tears after opening up about a difficult time and admitted that the pain of his latest challenge was worth it for the amount of money they raised for Children in Need.

Children in Need is the BBC’s annual fundraising extravaganza and part of their fundraising efforts sometimes sees celebrities taking on gruelling physical challenges.

In 2023, Vernon Kay completed an ultra marathon, running 116 miles from Leicester to his home town of Bolton over four days. It comes after Vernon revealed a BBC legend brutally snubbed him over a stint on an ITV show.

Appearing on BBC Radio 2 at the end of his mammoth journey he told host Zoe Ball: “I’m absolutely exhausted, absolutely spent, physically, mentally. Is there anyone here who can replace a knee?”

Speaking about his work for Children in Need in 2026, Vernon talked about talking to fellow fundraisers Patrick McGuinness and Sarah Cox and how all three became emotional discussing what they’d done.

In 2025 Patrick completed a 300-mile cycling challenge for Children in Need whilst Sara Cox ran, jogged, and walked 135 miles over five days last year.

He told listeners: “I was with Patrick McGuinness and Sara Cox last night, yesterday afternoon, we were talking about Children In Need.

“Very emotional for all three of us I’ll be honest with you, every time each time one of us talked about what we’d done for children in need you could see us all welling up.

“But it’s not because of what we did but because of what you did, so once again thank you for that. The pain was worth it.”

This isn’t the first time Vernon has talked about important moments from his past as he recently looked back 29 years and shared a moment which he says changed his life.

The Bolton-born broadcaster said in a social media video discussing his modelling career and how it was getting scouted as a youngster that changed his life. His modelling work helped spark a career in broadcasting.

Following a stint as a magazine model Vernon, now 51, moved into presenting and went onto host shows such as T4, All Star Family Fortunes, and shows on BBC Radio 1 and Radio X.

Writing in a post on Instagram alongside a photo of himself, he said: “Dec96 Got scouted by @selectmodellondon @jameslnoel and it’s the day that changed my life! [heart emoji].

“Taking a look back at my modelling days….kind of a pivotal moment for me [crying laughing emojis]. This is the one picture people always throw at me but I don’t think it’s THAT bad. #BlueSteel.”