Ilia Malinin eyes Olympic gold after short program performance

Ilia Malinin positioned himself to be in contention for a gold medal after a dominant short race in men’s figure skating on Tuesday at the Winter Olympics.

Malinin, nicknamed “Quad God”, showed his warrior spirit throughout his performance on the ice. As soon as he hit the quad flip on his first jump, all bets were off from there.

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The 21-year-old Virginia native gracefully moved up and down the ice, nailing a triple axel before entering her transition camel spin. He went up to the quad Lutz triple toe loop and when he came down he appeared to give himself a fist pump and smile knowing he hit it as perfectly as possible.

As the energy picked up in the routine, Malinin hit a backflip – prompting cheers in the arena. He finished the program with several spins.

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Ilia Malinin in the center of the rink during the men’s figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

“He’s the benchmark,” NBC broadcaster Johnny Weir said as Malinin awaited his scores.

Malinin scored 108.16. That was enough to be ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who scored 103.07, and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who scored 102.55.

Malinin already has one gold medal in the Olympics so far, as Team USA won a mixed team event last week. In that case, he participated in the free skate portion and scored 200.03. That gave the Americans 10 points and allowed Team USA to score the gold medal.

Ilia Malinin lands a trick during the men’s short skating program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

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The men’s singles free skating event takes place on Friday.