This is part of Slate’s 2026 Olympics coverage. Read more here.
We’ve seen a gold medal favorite in men’s figure skating falter at the Olympics before. In 2018, Nathan Chen had a disastrous 17th-place finish in the short program, putting him so far behind that even first place in the free skate was only enough to pull him up to fifth overall. Before today, I wondered just a little bit if history might repeat itself with Ilia Malinin. But after the performance that Malinin threw down in Tuesday’s short program, which staked him to a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, I can confidently tell you that he will be the men’s figure skating champion of the Milan Cortina Olympics.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs a figure skating expert, I feel it is my responsibility to tell you that Malinin is unbeatable. On the other hand, I feel a bit like I’m a shipbuilder calling the Titanic unsinkable. We make proclamations and the gods laugh at us. Yes, yes, and I say this rolling my eyes, “anything is possible.” So, sure, a meteorite from Ilia’s home planet could strike him down and knock him out of the competition. But if he skates like he’s been skating all season, he has room to make mistakes and still win gold. But apart from the Quad God, there were a lot of other spectacular skates in Milan on Tuesday.
(For anyone wondering: Yes, I did see Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté of Spain skate dressed like a Minion to the music of the Minions. His ability to perform this viral program seemed in doubt due to copyright issues, but all was resolved. And while he didn’t qualify for the free skate, his silly showmanship seems to have won the hearts of the world. For that, he should reward himself with a well-earned (and say this to yourself in a Minions voice) BANANA!)
Maxim Naumov is the most emotional story in the men’s event, having lost both his parents (world figure skating champions and Olympians themselves) in the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 last January. After overcoming such a horrible loss, Naumov showed his resilience in Milan.
Skating to Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20, he opened his program with a beautiful quadruple salchow and went on to complete a triple axel and a triple lutz-triple toe combination. I always enjoy the classic style of his skating, but on Tuesday it felt imbued with more emotion. Naumov has said that he has the passion and drive of three people now, and as he skated there really was the sense that something special was happening. While waiting for his scores, he held up a photo of his parents holding his hands on the ice as a child. In an interview, he said that after his performance, “All I could do was look up to the sky and say, ‘Look what we just did.’ ” In 14th place after the short program, he is far from medal contention, but for Naumov making it to Olympic ice, and proving that he belongs here, was a victory in itself.
Maxim Naumov holds a picture of his parents. WANG ZHAO/Getty ImagesNaumov’s American teammate Andrew Torgashev also went out there and crushed it. Torgashev is the self-proclaimed “Pizza King,” after a diet in which he ate pizza for 53 days in a row, somehow lost weight, and miraculously regained the ability to do a quadruple toe loop in the process. It sounds crazy, but maybe we shouldn’t question his process, as he pulled off that quad toe loop, a triple axel, and a triple flip-triple toe combination on the way to a clean program. He is in eighth place and not likely to medal, but after that skate I hope he is able to reward himself with some of Milan’s finest pizza.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNow, for the medal contenders: The top three in the short program each earned more than 100 points from the judges. After them, there is a sizeable nine-point drop down to fourth place, but the skaters from fourth to seventh are only separated by 0.82 points—less than the value of a single axel! Should someone in the top three falter, any one of them could sneak onto the podium.
Sitting in seventh is Kévin Aymoz of France, who I find one of the most entertaining skaters in the sport. Artistic, passionate, and famously inconsistent, Aymoz is a live wire, capable of a masterpiece or a total flop. On Tuesday, he was much closer to the former, completing a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combo, a triple axel, and a triple lutz. Mid-program, he pumped his arms in the air and slammed a fist on the ice as Lady Gaga’s “Judas” thumped over the loudspeakers. Seeing that confident queerness was a thrill for me and I’m sure for many other LGBTQ+ skaters who’ve dreamed of being fully themselves on the ice.
In sixth is Cha Jun-Hwan of South Korea, who, after faltering in the team competition, pulled off a strong program with a skate that included a quadruple salchow, a triple lutz-triple toe combination, and a triple axel. This is his third time at the Olympics, and this time he was given the honor of being South Korea’s flag-bearer. While his jumping technique is pristine, I was left a little cold by the presentation of this program. He’s going to need some more fire in the free skate if he hopes to top his fifth-place finish from Beijing.
In addition to being, as Borat tells us, the “No. 1 exporter of potassium,” Kazakhstan also produces excellent figure skaters. Mikhail Shaidorov follows in the footsteps of the late great Denis Ten, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist who was tragically murdered by carjackers in 2018. Shaidorov is coming off a silver medal at last year’s World Championships and proved why he’s a threat for a medal with a short program that featured a quadruple lutz-triple toe combination, a quadruple toe loop, and a triple axel. He describes himself as awkward and shy off the ice and I could feel a bit of that timidity. Although I thought that his music from the Dune score suited him well, he’s lacking that last bit of outward reach that would elevate his style into the very top tier.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt’s always nice to see someone succeed at an Olympics in their home country, and Daniel Grassl did Italy proud in the short program. He has the goods to be on the podium, landing a quadruple lutz-triple toe combo, a quadruple loop, and a triple axel, all while looking as long and lean as a single spaghetto. His jumping technique is odd—he very clearly telegraphs the entrance to his jumps, giving you enough time to drink an espresso before he takes off. And while he’s grown in his musicality over the years, there’s still something lacking in the emotional component from Grassl. Come on, Daniel, be Italian! Being dramatic is in your blood!
Sitting in third is Adam Siao Him Fa who, like his French compatriot Aymoz, has a reputation for inconsistency. On Tuesday, though, he silenced his doubters with his personal best short program. Even if he’s sometimes off, he’s always memorable. You may remember him for his Star Wars program at the Beijing Olympics (where he placed 14th) or from his illegal backflip at the 2024 World Championships, where he was willing to sustain a two-point deduction for the sake of thrilling the audience and ended up winning bronze anyway. (The backflip has since been legalized. He’s a man ahead of his time.)
Adam Siao Him Fa of France. Elsa/Getty ImagesOne of many skaters who decided to get a little Italian with his style this year, Siao Him Fa’s short program is inspired by Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. It’s actually a fitting character for a skater to play; I once had a choreographer tell me to imagine extending my arms and legs to the very edge of an imaginary sphere. All three of Siao Him Fa’s jumps were textbook: a gorgeous quadruple toe-triple toe combination, a triple axel with huge height, and a quadruple salchow with the softest landing one could hope for. Siao Him Fa skated like a man on a mission, a Vitruvian man breaking free from his circle. In a program, your legs get more and more tired by the end, but he actually seemed like he was gaining strength as he went on. At a certain point in his step sequence, he got so intense that I would not have been surprised to see lightning bolts shoot from his fingertips. Regardless of how he fares in the free skate, that is a short program I am going to watch over and over again.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIf Ilia Malinin is the Quad God, Yuma Kagiyama is perhaps the God Slayer, or maybe a Prometheus of the ice, daring to steal fire from the gods. (Forgive my mythological comparisons, we’re in Italy!) In the short program of the team event, Kagiyama did the unthinkable, besting Malinin by more than 10 points. He is also the reigning Olympic men’s singles silver medalist, and if you were to bet on anyone defeating Malinin, it should be him (but please don’t waste your money, I promise you Malinin is winning).
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. WANG ZHAO/Getty ImagesOn Tuesday, there would be no repeat performance of Kagiyama’s heroics. A single mistake on his final and easiest jump, the triple axel, was enough to keep first place out of his grasp. He still managed to complete a seemingly effortless quadruple toe-triple toe combination and a quadruple salchow, but it wasn’t enough to take down the best of the best. Skating to a lively Stevie Wonder medley, Kagiyama breathed life into the men’s event. Sometimes I think we should sit down the men before the season starts and tell them that they can’t all skating to intense brooding music; a few of them need to keep it light. And that’s exactly what Kagiyama did, performing with a joyous and cheeky style. Stylistically, I might actually prefer him to Malinin. There’s something so light about his skating that it seems like he’s floating above the ice rather than on it. At times, he may verge on getting a little too cute, but amidst the intensity of the men’s event, I found Kagiyama refreshing.
Now, I am going to run out of ways to express the excellence of Ilia Malinin. In the short program, he seemed to regain the confidence and sure-footedness that he lacked in his short program in the team event. When Malinin stepped off the ice, his coach Rafael Artunian said to him, “That was different, right?”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOn Tuesday, he pulled off a quadruple flip, a quadruple lutz-triple toe combination, and a triple axel (the jump that tripped him up in the team event) on his way to earning 108.16 points, more than 10 points higher than his marks from the team event. He also did a backflip and his signature “raspberry twist,” not to earn points, but just because he can. I swear, the kid just likes making things harder for himself. Malinin is still withholding his secret weapon, the quadruple axel, so keep an eye out for that historic feat in the free skate. Mind you, he doesn’t need to include it to win, but there’s a lust for glory in Malinin’s eyes that tell me he’ll attempt the move, one that was seen as physically impossible not long ago.
Malinin has said that his short program is about being a warrior, but he is so peerless that his only battles are with himself and with history. Legendary jumpers are often lacking in their artistry, but Malinin has really grown in this aspect of his performance. At times he seemed like a magician withholding the extent of his powers, excited to wow us with each successive trick. During his step sequence he seemed to be pulled by an unstoppable energy, and several times he stuck out his tongue in an aggressive way that called to mind the intimidation tactics of Māori warriors during the haka.
Ilia Malinin shows some tongue. WANG ZHAO/Getty ImagesThe Quad God is still mortal, and he did leave some points on the table. Malinin only earned a level 3 on his flying sit spin and his step sequence, whereas Kagiyama had level 4s on his step sequence and all his spins. That said, I have no doubts that Malinin is on his way to becoming an Olympic legend. You won’t want to miss his free skate on Friday, which could be one of the greatest in the history of the sport.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementYou’re tired of hearing that Ilia Malinin is going to win, I get it, so let me throw on my Steve Kornacki khakis and tell you how Kagiyama could still win. If I were to take Malinin’s lowest scoring free skate this season (197.78 at the Lombardia Trophy) and compare it to Kagiyama’s highest scoring free skate this season (193.64 at the Grand Prix Final), Kagiyama would fall even further behind. To pull off the upset of all upsets, Kagiyama would need a score more like his all-time personal best (208.94 in the 2022 Olympic team event) and hope that Malinin is having an extremely off day. I just don’t see it happening. So, when Malinin wins gold, remember I told you so. And if the unthinkable happens and he loses, remember that I whispered to you that ice is inherently slippery and (deep sigh) anything could happen.
AdvertisementAdvertisement