Ilia Malinin, the red-hot favourite for men's figure skating gold at Milan-Cortina 2026, suffered a nightmare as he fell twice and missed out on the medals entirely.
In a remarkable men's free skate, many of the major medal contenders struggled with their routines. Of the final six athletes, five suffered falls.
The only man to skate clean, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, was left stunned as he won gold – his country's first Winter Olympic gold in 32 years.
Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, regarded as Malinin's nearest rival for gold, fell on a quad flip and had to settle for silver. Bronze went to his compatriot Shun Sato.
The USA's Malinin finished eighth after a horrendous free skate in which he visibly crumbled under the pressure.
Competing in his first Olympics, the 21-year-old arrived with the nickname 'Quad God' having become the only skater to successfully land the quadruple axel.
The move requires a skater to launch themselves into a jump, spin four and a half times in the air, and cleanly land backwards.
But Malinin did not pull out this move at all in the Games, although it was registered in his planned elements. Indeed, in this final he only performed a single axel, to groans from the crowd.
And, going for a quad lutz, he fell to the ice in a moment that made the Olympics stop.
No-one expected it. And certainly no-one thought he would fall again, but he did just that two elements later.
At the end, Malinin grabbed his hair and put his hands to his knees. As he left the ice he could only shake his head on the verge of tears. The Quad God, mortal.
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Shaidorov maintains composure
Malinin had come in for some criticism at these Games, particularly around his performance in the team event, in which he was outscored by Kagiyama in the short program before errors in the free skate – in which he had not originally been expected to compete - almost allowed Japan to scoop gold.
Reacting to the pressure, Malinin's team took him out of the Olympic bubble to train 35 miles away in Bergamo before the men's event as they hoped it would help him reset.
And his cleaned-up performance in the individual short program – finishing five points ahead of the field – seemed like that that of a man in no mood to lose his two-and-a-half-year unbeaten competition streak.
His lead into the free skate was ominous – this is where Malinin dominates. At the Grand Prix Final, he was third after the short but still finished 30 points clear of the field after the free, landing seven quads.
Usually, he has such an advantage because of a deadly combination of fearlessness and ability. His program for the free skate has a much higher technical score than any of his rivals, and judges will give extra credit for ambition while also rewarding with a higher component score.
But this was a timid routine. The quad axel subbed for a single, a quad loop reduced to a double. Dreams, turned to rubble.
On his quad salchow, he only executed a double, then fell. Reality hit, just like the ice.
Malinin's free skate was the 15th best of the night. It earned just 156.33 points, more than 40 behind Shaidorov.
He performed a backflip for the crowd's entertainment, but it seemed like a forlorn call to the good times of only last week.
In the team event he had also landed the first legal backflip at an Olympic Games since US champion Terry Kubicka in 1976 - after which it was banned for safety reasons.
Thanks in part to skaters like France's Surya Bonaly - who performed the move illegally but successfully at Nagano 1998 - the backflip is now legal again.
Malinin became the first to land it at the Games on only one foot and did the flip again in the short program.
But really, none of that mattered. And after the scores came in, Malinin went straight to Shaidorov to congratulate him.
This is Kazakhstan's first Winter Olympic gold medal since Lillehammer 1994, when Vladimir Smirnov won the men's 50km cross-country skiing. That was 10 years before Shaidorov, 21, was born.
After a slight slip on the quad lutz, Shaidorov kept his head when all about were losing theirs and produced two clean quad techniques of his own.
All hail the new Quad God.
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