NOTE: Watch the ice dance free skate stay beginning at 3:05 p.m. CT utilizing the hyperlink beneath:
There have been backflips, there have been expert jumps, however Ilia Malinin’s first Olympic determine skating efficiency did not go precisely as deliberate.
After years of successful scores and performances, his first skate on Olympic ice ended with a surprising upset on the 2026 Milan Cortina Video games.
Reigning silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama landed a pair of near-perfect quads, one together with a triple toe loop, and scored 108.67 factors for his quick program Saturday evening. That topped Malinin for the section — he was second with 98.00 — and gave his Japanese workforce 33 factors, only one behind the defending champion U.S. on the halfway juncture of the competitors.
Italy was third with 28 factors, Canada fourth with 27 and Georgia fifth with 25.
2022 Olympic determine skater Mariah Bell explains simply how unimaginable U.S. determine skater Ilia Malinin is on the ice.
The 21-year-old wunderkind Malinin had deliberate the quad axel — the 4 1/2-revolution leap solely he has ever landed in competitors — however solely did a shaky model of the triple. He had began with a superb opening quad flip and completed his program with a quad lutz-triple toe loop, getting bonus factors for the mixture as a result of it got here within the second half of this system.
He additionally efficiently landed a backflip — changing into the primary to take action legally on the Olympics since 1976.
Ultimately, his efficiency had the gang roaring and on their ft.
Watch beneath:
However when his rating was learn, Malinin appeared virtually shocked that Kagiyama had overwhelmed him — and by the margin. Malinin obtained a technical parts rating of 52.62 and a parts rating of 45.38.
“That is undoubtedly an upset,” commentator and Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski stated because the rating was introduced.
Kagiyama opened with a quad toe-triple toe mixture, landed a quad salchow and completed his quick program with a peerless triple axel. And in contrast to Malinin, when his rating was learn, Kagiyama jumped out of his seat with clenched fists raised excessive.
The Individuals have been on a mission ever because the 2022 Beijing Video games, the place their Olympic triumph was overshadowed by a Russian doping controversy. The investigation into it held their gold medals in limbo for greater than two years.
Japan has lengthy been thought of their largest rivals. And so they had managed to remain inside two factors after the primary day of the three-day workforce occasion with successful quick applications by Kaori Sakamoto and pairs world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
Add one other win for Kagiyama — and a giant assertion by Japan’s star forward of the lads’s competitors subsequent week.
The second half of the competitors started later Saturday evening with the free dance, the place world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates had been again in motion for the U.S. They gained the rhythm dance on Friday, hours earlier than the opening ceremony, to present the Individuals the utmost of 10 factors and loads of momentum to start the multi-discipline occasion.
Full determine skating schedule
| Date/time (ET) | Occasion | Stream |
| Friday, Feb. 6, 4-5:35 a.m. | Staff Occasion: Rhythm Dance | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Friday, Feb. 6, 5:35-7:35 a.m. | Staff Occasion: Pairs Quick Program | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Friday, Feb. 6, 7:35-8:55 a.m. | Staff Occasion: Ladies’s Quick Program | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Saturday, Feb. 7, 1:45-3:15 p.m. | Staff Occasion: Males’s Quick Program | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Saturday, Feb. 7, 4-5 p.m. | Staff Occasion: Free Dance | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Sunday, Feb. 8, 1:30-2:45 p.m. | Staff Occasion: Pairs Free Skate | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Sunday, Feb. 8, 2:45-3:55 p.m. | Staff Occasion: Ladies’s Free Skate | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Sunday, Feb. 8, 3:55-5 p.m. | Staff Occasion: Males’s Free Skate | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Monday, Feb. 9, 1:20-2:40 p.m. | Rhythm Dance on USA: Teams 1 & 2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Monday, Feb. 9, 2:40-5 p.m. | Rhythm Dance on NBC: Teams 3, 4 & 5 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Tuesday, Feb. 10, 12:30-2:10 p.m. | Males’s Quick Program on USA: Teams 1 & 2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1:45-5 p.m. | Males’s Quick Program on NBC: Teams 3, 4 & 5 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Wednesday, Feb. 11, 1:30-2:15 p.m. | Free Dance on USA: Group 1 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2:15-5 p.m. | Free Dance on NBC: Teams 2, 3 & 4 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Friday, Feb. 13, 1-2:50 p.m. | Males’s Free Skate on USA: Teams 1 & 2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Friday, Feb. 13, 3-5 p.m. | Males’s Free Skate on NBC: Teams 3 & 4 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Sunday, Feb. 15, 1:45-3:10 p.m. | Pairs Quick on USA: Teams 1 &2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Sunday, Feb. 15, 3-5 p.m. | Pairs Quick on NBC: Teams 3, 4 & 5 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Monday, Feb. 16, 2-4:15 p.m. | Pairs Free on USA: Teams 1 & 2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Monday, Feb. 16, 3:55-5 p.m. | Pairs Free on NBC: Teams 3 & 4 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Tuesday, Feb. 17, 12:45-3:10 p.m. | Ladies’s Quick on USA: Teams 1 & 2 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2:40-5 p.m. | Ladies’s Quick on NBC: Teams 3, 4 & 5 |
Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Thursday, Feb. 19, 1-5:10 p.m. | Ladies’s Free Skate on NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
| Saturday, Feb. 21, 2-4:30 p.m. | Exhibition Gala | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com |
