MILAN — Believe in the Quad God.
Ilia Malinin saved the United States with a gutsy and gritty free skate Sunday to win the country’s second consecutive Olympic team figure skating gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games. His program scored 200.03 points and edged out Shun Sato’s season-best 194.86 for Japan and sealed a 69-68 victory for the United States.
After Amber Glenn fought through a shaky free program that finished third and lost the United States’ two-point lead, Malinin knew he would be the tiebreaker for the first figure skating medal of these Olympics.
He delivered as only he could.
Ilia Malinin’s free skate lifted the U.S. to victory Sunday in the team competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
Malinin executed five quad jumps and won by nearly six points, even without his signature quad axel. No other men’s skater attempted three quadruple jumps Sunday.
He put his hand down after a jump, but the mistake seemed to only fuel him. He aggressively changed the back half of his program to earn back extra points. Malinin’s teammates, cheering from the sideline box, rose to their feet and pumped their fists after each of his jumping passes.
“All of us put our heart and soul into this,” Malinin said. “Without each other, we wouldn’t have done it.”
When he landed his backflip, skating flawlessly through on one foot, the packed crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena roared. U.S. coaches wrapped each other up in a bouncing huddle of joy. His teammates beamed.
“I just had so much trust in him too, though,” pairs skater Danny O’Shea said. “Ilia is amazing. So clutch.”
In front of a raucous home crowd, Italy held off Georgia for the bronze medal behind a dazzling free skate from Matteo Rizzo, who dropped to his knees on the ice and cried. His performance had fans chanting “Italia!” before he even finished. He cried into the Italian flag in the kiss-and-cry after his season-best 179.62 points gave Italy 60 points.
Buoyed by two dominant performances from ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the United States led by five points entering the final day. But there was still no room for error as Japan finished first in qualifying in all of Sunday’s disciplines.
With the dominance of Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara in pairs, O’Shea knew the strategy for the U.S. pair was to simply try to stay as close as possible in the discipline. His partner, Ellie Kam, fought for the landing on a throw jump so hard that she could feel her leg cramping as she bent down in a deep one-legged squat.
Ellie Kam, performing with American partner Danny O’Shea, fought for every point Sunday. “I was like, ‘I’m not going down,’” Kam said. “I got this. We got this.”
(Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)
“I was like, ‘I’m not going down,’” Kam said. “I got this. We got this.”
They looked at each other before their next element and said “calm.” Their message cut through the energized crowd that cheered louder and louder with each jump. At the end, Kam’s and O’Shea’s celebratory screams simply joined the crowd’s roar. As they saluted the crowd, O’Shea pointed toward Kam to acknowledge her effort.
The pair’s fourth-place finish in the free program was a one-point improvement from their qualifying spot, earning a slim but vital cushion entering the men’s and women’s free skates.
Instead of sending world champion Alysa Liu back for the free skate after she performed the short program, the U.S. selected three-time national champion Glenn. The 26-year-old was making her Olympic debut.
On the Olympic stage for the first time, Glenn has tried to embrace the opportunity while treating the competition as if it were any other one. But the larger stage created additional stress for Glenn after she was asked in a news conference about President Trump’s approach to the LGBTQ+ community in recent years and how it’s affected her personally.
American Amber Glenn struggled Sunday in her Olympic debut.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, encouraged people in the queer community to “stay strong in these hard times” and recognized that it wasn’t the first time the community had to unite to “fight for our human rights.” Glenn then received threats on social media after the news conference and posted on Instagram that she would be taking a break from social platforms to focus on the competition.
But it wasn’t the social media hate that rattled Glenn, she insisted. She simply was tired, sore and disoriented from the unfamiliar Olympic team competition format.
All of Glenn’s other competitors did the short program portion of the competition Friday. She came in with several good days of training at the venue but did not get the same opportunity to get used to the stage. Glenn fought through a shaky triple axel to open her program and stepped out of a triple flip that prevented her from completing a planned combination for her second jumping pass.
Gold medalist Ilia Malinin celebrates after the medal ceremony at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena.
(Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Waiting in the kiss-and-cry, Glenn bowed her head and stared at the floor. She struggled to muster a smile.
“I’m grateful that the team is so supportive,” Glenn said immediately after finishing behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann. “But I do feel guilty that I could be the reason that we don’t win the gold, and I don’t know how I will ever apologize for that.”
Glenn was the first skater to hug Malinin in the United States’ team celebration, lifting him off his feet as he extended arms out wide.
