The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Friday’s results in the men’s singles figure skating at the Winter Olympics provided another reminder that even so-called sure things aren’t so sure.
Ilia Malinin of the United States — who hadn’t lost since 2021, whose unique talents earned him the nickname the “Quad God” and who was the overwhelming favorite — fell twice in the free skate. Down with him went his chances.
No gold. Not even a podium spot, in fact, for Malinin.
Instead, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan won gold with a career-best score of 291.58. Malinin, 21, who was in first place after the short program, had the 15th-best score in the free stake and finished eighth, more than 27 points behind Shaidorov.
Some outcomes (think North American hockey) went as expected, of course. Here is a roundup of some of Friday’s biggest results.
Mikhail Shaidorov, left, won Kazakhstan’s first Winter Olympics gold medal since 1994, capitalizing on a poor free skate by Ilia Malinin. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
One of the most shocking results in Olympic history
It’s hard to overstate how heavily Malinin was favored in the men’s singles skating. He ruled at the 2024 and 2025 world championships and entered these Olympics with the three highest free skating scores on the books.
Leading after the short program, Malinin needed a 183.43 to get gold. But he uncharacteristically faltered in the free skate. He fell twice. He executed only three of his seven planned quadruple jumps.
Malinin holds the world-record score in the free skate of 238.24. He posted a 156.33 on Friday.
Shaidorov won Kazakhstan’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in 32 years. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan repeated as silver medalist, and his compatriot Shun Sato took bronze.
U.S. women advance to hockey semifinals with win over Italy
The host nation hung with the powerhouse United States for half of the first period, but the U.S. pulled away to a 6-0 quarterfinal victory.
Kendall Coyne Schofield scored her first two goals of the tournament, and defenders Megan Keller and Laila Edwards added a goal and an assist each.
The United States has scored at least five goals in each of its games, including its 5-0 win over rival Canada.
Canada men wear down Switzerland; Kevin Fiala suffers injury
Canada scored another five goals and defeated Switzerland 5-1 to lock up the top spot in Group A. After defeating the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, in its opener Thursday, Canada has a game against France (winless in two group games) on Sunday before the quarterfinals.
Headliners Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon scored, and Macklin Celebrini, 19, made it two goals in as many Olympic games. McDavid had two assists for his second three-point game, and he continued to be a tone-setter with physical play.
With less than three minutes left and the outcome settled, Switzerland’s Kevin Fiala got tangled up with Tom Wilson. Fiala’s left leg apparently was injured when Wilson fell on top of him, and the Los Angeles Kings forward was taken from the ice on a stretcher.
Fiala is the highest-scoring Switzerland-born forward in NHL history.
Eight (and counting?) for Norwegian XC ski star
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo blacked out one of the squares on his Olympics cross-country skiing bingo card by winning the men’s 10km freestyle individual interval-start event.
An interval-start race brings the Yogism “It ain’t over till it’s over” to life. Skiers set off at 30-second intervals, so the winner can’t be determined until the final skier to start crosses the finish line and records a time.
Klæbo’s gold medal on Friday was his third of the 2026 Winter Olympics and his eighth overall, tying him for the most by a Winter Olympian (with two other Norwegian cross-country skiers and a Norwegian biathlete). Klæbo has three events left in these Games to try to break the record for gold medals by a Winter Olympian.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych in Munich, Germany, on Friday. Heraskevych’s bid to race in the Olympics in a helmet that honors athletes killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was rejected Friday.
Ukrainian skeleton racer’s appeal on helmet denied
Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian skeleton athlete who sought to race with a helmet honoring fellow athletes who have died during Russia’s invasion of his country, had his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied.
Heraskevych wore his “helmet of memory” during training this week. The helmet has images of Ukrainian athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, launched four days after the 2022 Beijing Olympics ended.
The court announced the decision about two hours before the final two heats of the men’s skeleton competition. Heraskevych missed the first two runs of the competition on Thursday after being pulled from the start list following an eligibility ruling by the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation.
The International Olympic Committee said the helmet violates its rules on athlete expression during competition.
