In what was possibly the worst moment of his life, the four-time American figure skating men’s champion Ilia Malinin couldn’t hold back his anger.
Sitting next to his father, following the lowest point of his professional career, he wiped away tears and was caught on a microphone complaining about the United States Skating Federation.
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“I told them to send me to Beijing,” he said. “And [then] I wouldn’t have skated like that. They all think it’s easy. It’s not easy.”
Four years ago, a 17-year-old Malinin finished second at the national championship behind Nathan Chen. While the top three finishers at the United States championship would generally go on to the Olympics, the federation instead chose two veteran presences to represent the team over the teenager.
Although Chen would go on to win the gold medal in a blowout, breaking world records on the way, the other two skaters chosen over Malinin didn’t podium.
Vincent Zhou did not compete due to COVID, and Jason Brown, the pick over Malinin, placed sixth.
It’s often the case that younger skaters are allowed to compete at the Olympics to test the pressure and set lower expectations before ramping up to challenge for gold in their second attempt. In Malinin’s mind, if Team USA had sent him to the 2022 Games to learn under Chen, he would have been ready to take on the mantle of ace for Milan.
That wasn’t the case. Malinin was undefeated for over two years going into Friday’s free skate finale, and it all came tumbling down once the pressure hit him. He fell numerous times and wobbled on his generally crisp quadruple jumps, cratering off the podium and finishing in eighth place.
Although Malinin was mad at his own skating organization, he showed great sportsmanship in defeat. He walked over to the new gold medalist, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, and praised him for a well-earned championship.
