American figure skater Ilia Malinin fell twice during her final run on Friday night and finished eighth in the competition’s final event.
The 21-year-old sensation, who arrived in Italy as a clear favorite for gold in the sport, had an unfortunate accident when “overwhelmed with negative emotions” he fell under the quadruple Lutz, preventing him from completing the subsequent triple toe loop.
The two-time world champion, who nicknamed himself the “Quad God” as a teenager, had a five-point lead before taking to the ice for the final race at the Milan Winter Olympics in Cortina.
Malinin fell for the second time towards the end of his performance while attempting a quad salchow-triple Axel combination. He was visibly shaken by his “worst” performance yet.
The American sensation finished 15th out of 24 competitors in the segment with a 156.33 free skate score.
Malinin said: “I blew it. It’s honestly the first thing that came to my mind. I just felt like all the traumatic moments of my life started to flood my head.”
He continued, “I couldn’t handle it as too many negative thoughts just flooded into my mind,” adding, “It was definitely something I didn’t expect. I can’t go back and change it, even though I would love to.”
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won the gold medal, while Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato won silver and bronze respectively.
