Ilia Malinin is speaking out after his major upset at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
During the men’s single skating competition at the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Friday (February 13), the 21-year-old skater came in 8th place after falling multiple times and messing up several of his attempted jumps.
The 8th place finish came as a huge shock to everyone, including Ilia, as he has expected to take home gold.
In an interview after his event, Ilia admitted he’s still processing his loss.
Keep reading to find out more…“I blew it,” Ilia admitted to NBC. “That’s honestly the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘There’s no way that just happened.’”
“I felt like going into this competition I was so ready,” he explained. “I just felt ready getting on that ice. But I think maybe that might have been the reason—that maybe I was too confident that I was gonna go well.”
Ilia, who is known as the “Quad God,” is the first and only skater to successfully land a fully rotated axel in an international competition.
He went on to say that his mistakes came from his mental state as he stepped out onto the ice, despite the fact that he’d been preparing all season and felt confident in his program.
“Finally experiencing that Olympic atmosphere—it’s crazy. It’s not like any other competition,” Ilia explained. “It’s really different.”
He continued, “I’m still so grateful that I was able to put in this work and effort to get to where I am. But of course, that was not the skate that I wanted.”
For now, Ilia – who already won gold in the figure skating event – said that he’s still processing “what just happened, and while he had “no words,” he’s looking to the future.
“Obviously I should take the stuff that I learned from here and really just improve it,” he said, “or use it to my knowledge to see what I can do in the future for this to not happen.”
Get the scoop on Ilia Malinin‘s love life and what he has said about his relationship status.
