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
Ilia Malinin finished 8th in the men’s single skating final(Image: Getty Images)
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.
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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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