Ilia

The search for Ilia Malinin for olympic golden figure skating Maybe it’s not so easy after all.

The same goes for your american team.

Yuma Kagiyama landed a pair of near-perfect quads, one in combination with a triple toe loop, and scored 108.67 points in his short program Saturday night. That edged out Malinin in the segment (he was second with a 98.00) and helped keep the Japanese team within striking distance of the defending U.S. champion heading into the final day of competition.

Thanks to a brilliant free skating Madison Chock and Evan Bates Later that night, the United States finished the day with 44 points. Japan was five points behind in the men’s, women’s and pairs free skate events to decide the medals on Sunday.

“You know, I think I just have to push myself and see what happens and do better next time. We’ll figure it out,” said Malinin, the two-time reigning world champion, who is undefeated in his last 14 full competitions going back more than two years.

“Being here, I try to enjoy every moment and be grateful for everything,” Malinin continued, “because there are a lot of unexpected things that can happen in life and I take everything seriously.”

While the United States and Japan face off for gold, the race for bronze is also close: Italy has 37 points, Canada has 35 and Georgia has 32.

The top five teams advanced after short programs, with the Canadians advancing thanks to Stephen Gogolev’s personal best score of 92.99. Kevin Aymoz could not match it for France, leaving his team one point below the cut line.

“I’m focusing more on myself,” Gogolev said, “and obviously that will translate into the highest possible ranking for the team.”

As for Malinin, he had walked through the tunnels inside the Milan Ice Skating Arena before his Olympic debut, wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt that said “Quad God,” the nickname he derived from the way he performs his otherworldly four-revolution jumps. The name came up when he tried to change his Instagram account.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I got a quad? Quad God, there it is, okay, let’s put it on.'” told News themezone in an interview last week. “And from then on everyone says, ‘Why did you call yourself Quad God? You only have one quad.'” And I’m like, ‘Well, now that I think about it, maybe I should try to get them all to get Quad God status.'”

The 21-year-old prodigy on Saturday night did not attempt the quad axel, the 4 1/2-turn jump that is the only one he has ever performed in competition, and instead performed a shaky version of a triple. Malinin performed a great opening quad flip and finished his program with a quad lutz-triple toe loop, earning bonus points for the combination in the second half of the program.

But when his score was read, Malinin seemed almost stunned that Kagiyama had beaten him, and by a 10-point margin.

“That’s only 50% of my potential here,” Malinin said.

Malinan, whose parents were Olympic figure skaters from Uzbekistan and whose grandfather was a figure skater from the USSR, began skating at age 6.

He won gold at the 2024 and 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Kagiyama opened with a four-finger and three-finger combination, landed a quadruple salchow, and finished his short program with an incomparable triple axle. And unlike Malinin, when Kagiyama’s score was read, he jumped from his seat with his fists clenched and raised.

“I always get good motivation from Ilia because he is one of the skaters who created this moment in figure skating,” Kagiyama said. “He’s a good jumper and he can do quads, so I always think I want to catch him.”

The Americans have a mission since the 2022 Beijing Games, where their Olympic triumph was overshadowed by a Russian doping controversy. The subsequent investigation kept their gold medals in limbo for more than two years, until Chock and Bates were part of the team that finally received them in a ceremony during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Japan has long been considered its biggest rival. And they’ve lived up to those expectations, landing short programs from Kaori Sakamoto and world tag team champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara to accompany Kagiyama’s triumph on Saturday night.

It was only fitting that Chock and Bates would perform (and win) both shows during the team competition.

Their free dance, a flamenco-style set to “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi western “Westworld,” had the crowd on its feet by the end. Their season-high score of 133.23 points gave a big boost to an American team that needed some momentum.