Ilia Malinin didn’t execute the move that only he has ever produced in competition, the quadruple axel. At one point of his risqué routine, he faltered, lost balance and his hands fleetingly fell on the ice.
Malinin, figure skating’s greatest performer at just 21, had the gold medal riding on his blades as America’s last skater in the teams event. In normal circumstances, a blunder of that magnitude would potentially cost his team the gold.
But Malinin did land no fewer than five varieties of quad in his routine, manoeuvres that involve the highest degrees of difficulty. “I broke physics,” he boasted to The Atlantic recently. “Now I think physics doesn’t apply to me.”
These ludicrous manoeuvres earned him and team America so many points that they more than compensated for his stumble, delivering the USA the team gold, ahead of Japan, whose premier skater Yumo Kagiyama had beaten Malinin the previous night in the “short” program. Italy were loudly celebrated bronze medallists.
Watching Malinin from the not-so-cheap seats was tennis GOAT Novak Djokovic, who hadn’t turned up to watch Georgia’s skater, or to listen to the thumping dance music that punctuated the breaks.
When Malinin did his now-customary backflip late in the winning routine, an astounded Djokovic puts his hands on head, as if to say, “what the heck.”
Novak Djokovic and his family watch the figure skating.Credit: Getty Images
Malinin, thrilled to learn about Djokovic’s reaction to the backflip, certainly sounded as if Djokovic had turned up for the express purpose of witnessing his routine. “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” he said in the mosh pit of his media interviews. “Seeing a famous tennis player watching my performance.”
The backflip did not carry any special bonus points from the judges. So why do it? “That’s just showing off,” explained one of the American journalists covering his every gyration.
