Ilia Malinin Owes the Olympic Stumble Gods (and All of Us!) a Quadruple Axel

Today at 2 p.m., the moment I’d been waiting for since Saturday finally arrived: the men’s individual Olympic figure skating short program, where Team USA’s “Quad God” Ilia Malinin and Team Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama would first face off for Olympic gold. Would Malinin finally attempt his quadruple axel?! Would Kagiyama deliver another jaw-dropping short program that would blow Malinin’s score out of the water?! Would any of these men deliver a performance so beautiful that I’m brought to tears?! All that and more below.

Before we get into today’s competition, let me first brief you on this rivalry and why it’s so f#!king exciting. Scroll to the bottom if you’re looking for results, but stay with me a moment if you’re looking for lore. (Quick background: I was a competitive figure skater until I was 14. Don’t tell eight-year-old me that she didn’t make it to the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics!) 

Kagiyama and Malinin are the two best male figure skaters in the world, no contest. Malinin has earned the nickname the “Quad God” because not only does he perform the most quad jumps, he’s also the only figure skater in the world to ever land a quadruple axel–the sport’s most difficult jump, which requires 4 1/2 turns in the air—in competition. 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton said the first time he saw a video of Malinin’s quad axel, he thought it was AI.

Malinin also does backflips, which he’s quickly becoming known for, but he barely gets any points for them; he does them because he’s good at them, they look cool, and figure skating only just lifted its ban on the move in 2024. (The real Olympic backflip story belongs to Surya Bonaly at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.)

Kagiyama doesn’t have a quadruple axel, or a backflip, but he is just So. Fucking. Good. His execution is flawless, and his jumps are so perfect that he looks like a spinning top who’s been expertly launched by an electronic pull-string. His short program, especially, is all crisp landings and huge vibes. 

“He reminds me of a pianist, he knows the key so well,” Tara Lipinski commented during Tuesday’s competition. “He was just born to skate.”

Over the weekend was the Olympic Figure Skating team event (1o countries compete in eight events over three days), which marked the first match-up between Kagiyama and Malinin, who performed back-to-back. Kagiyama—who won silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics—went first and gave one of the most excellent performances I’ve seen in my life. It was near-flawless technically, and he looked like he was having a fucking blast. It actually reminded me of watching Lipinski’s free skate at the Nagano Olympics, where the entire time you’re watching them, you can just feel that they know they’re nailing it. 

After his program ended, he jumped around, beaming from ear to ear, with the NBC commentators noting that “this emotion is something we never see” from him. It was beyond well-earned, and the judges gave him a 108.67, causing my jaw to drop for a second time. Team Japan went nuts.

Afterwards, he told Reuters that he feels like he’s “in a race” against Malinin, and that while he delivered a “perfect performance,” he knows he has “to make it even better” for the individual competition if he’s going to beat Malinin for Olympic gold. 

Malinin then took the ice and delivered a very strong performance, but he didn’t attempt the quad axel, and—while he was definitely robbed—judges only gave him a 98.00. He was pissed. 

Regardless, he competed again on Sunday for Team USA in the free skate, performing his long program (before you ask, yes, that’s his voice), and delivered another very strong routine. (Shun Sato performed the free skate for Team Japan.) Even though Malinin stumbled coming out of one of his jumps, the entire program was still so technically difficult that it didn’t matter—his score helped cinch gold for Team USA. Once again, he did not attempt the quadruple axel. Which brings us to…today.

Malinin still did not attempt a quadruple axel on Tuesday, so I imagine he’s truly saving everything for the men’s individual free skate on Friday, the results of which will determine who medals. But he absolutely demolished his routine, earning a score of 108.16—still not his personal best, but much, much better than Saturday.

Meanwhile, Kagiyama stumbled while landing his triple axel, in a moment that nearly made me throw up. It was the only mistake in his otherwise, once again, nearly-flawless routine—but Malinin only needed him to make that tiny mistake to take the lead. Kagiyama scored a 103.7. 

In terms of tearing up, only one performance made me almost cry: France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who delivered such a mesmerizing and emotive performance that it honestly left me a little hypnotized. If he had a quad axel, Malinin would be screwed. Siao Him Fa scored a personal best 102.55—something you love to see happen to an athlete at the Olympics—placing him third ahead of Friday’s free skate. He’s favored to win bronze, granted there are no more devastating stumbles from Malinin or Kagiyama…

See you back here Friday. If Malinin finally unleashes the quad axel (and lands it!), gold is his. If he stumbles and Kagiyama skates the routine of his life, gold could go to Japan. If they both fuck up, victory could be Siao Him Fa’s. Friday the 13th has to be lucky for at least one of them.

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