Ilia “Quad God” Malinin stunned by Yuma Kagiyama in Olympic short program as Japan closes gap on US

Ilia MalininOlympic quest figure skating gold may not be so easy. The same goes for his The American team.

Yuma Kagiyama scored nearly perfect quads, one combined with a triple toe loop, and the Japanese star scored 108.67 points for her short routine on Saturday night. That leapfrogged Malinin in the division – he was second with 98.00 – and gave his team 33 points, just one behind defending champions the US midway through the three-day tournament.

While he was waiting for his score, his Team USA teammates followed him, waved at him and covered him with an American flag.

“I just feel happy to be here. Come on, it’s the Olympics. You’re talking bad things like that,” said Malinin, the two-time world champion who is unbeaten in his last 14 tournaments dating back more than two years.

“It’s great to be here and to be a part of this team,” said Malinin. “It’s truly a lifetime achievement.”

Italy was third in the group competition with 28 points, Canada was fourth with 27 and Georgia was fifth with 25.

Only the top five advanced after the short program, and the Canadians squeaked by thanks to Stephen Gogolev’s best score of 92.99. Kevin Aymoz was unable to match France, leaving his side one point below the cut-off line.

The second part of the team event started later on Saturday night with the free dance, where world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were back in the US. rhythmic dance on Friday, hours before the opening event, giving the Americans a top 10 score and a big boost to start this multi-discipline event.

Now, the Japanese have momentum.

“I didn’t feel pressure and I don’t feel nervous today,” said Kagiyama. “I’m very happy that our score is so close to the USA.”

Before he made his Olympic debut, Malinin had entered the tunnel inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena, wearing a black tank that read “Quad God,” a nickname for the way he performed that national 4-revolution jump.

The name came up when he tried to change his Instagram handle.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I got a quad? Quad God, it’s there, okay, let’s put it in,'” he told CBS News in an interview last week. “And from then on everyone was like, ‘Why did you call yourself Quad God? You only have one quad.” And I’m like, ‘Well, now that I think about it, maybe I should try to get them all to get Quad God status.’

The 21-year-old wunderkind didn’t attempt a quad axel — the only 4 1/2-revolution jump ever landed in competition — but did a rocking version of the triple instead. He started with an opening quad flip and finished his routine with a quad lutz-triple toe loop, earning bonus points for this combination because it made it into the second half of the routine.

But when his scores were read, Malinin seemed almost surprised that Kagiyama had beaten him – and by points.

“That’s only 50% of my full strength here,” said Malinin.

Malinan, whose parents were Olympic figure skaters in Uzbekistan and whose grandfather was a figure skater in the USSR, started skating at 6.

She won gold at both the 2024 and 2025 ISU Figure Skating World Championships.

Kagiyama opened with a quad-triple toe combination, landed a quad salchow and finished his short program with an uneven triple axel. And unlike Malinin, when Kagiyama’s score was read, he jumped up from his chair with clenched fists raised.

“I always get good inspiration from Ilia because he is one of the skaters who created this era of skating,” said Kagiyama. “He’s a good jumper, and he can do quads, so I always think I want to catch him.”

The Americans have been on the hunt since the 2022 Beijing Games, when their Olympic victory was overshadowed The Russian doping controversy. The ensuing investigation held their gold medals in limbo for more than two years, until Chock and Bates were part of the team that finally earned them at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Japan has long been considered its biggest rival. And they lived up to their expectations, getting short programs from Kaori Sakamoto and world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara to go along with Kagiyama’s victory on Saturday night.