{"id":228320,"date":"2026-02-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/the-weight-of-expectation-ilia-malinin-goes-for-gold-in-todays-mens-free-skate-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:00:00","slug":"the-weight-of-expectation-ilia-malinin-goes-for-gold-in-todays-mens-free-skate-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/the-weight-of-expectation-ilia-malinin-goes-for-gold-in-todays-mens-free-skate-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"The weight of expectation: Ilia Malinin goes for gold in today\u2019s men\u2019s free skate | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST:<\/strong> Today\u2019s the day \u2014 21-year-old American Ilia Malinin, who leads the men\u2019s individual figure skating competition following Tuesday\u2019s short program, will skate for gold. Much has been made of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ilia-malinin-on-the-pursuit-of-perfection\/#:~:text=Malinin%27s%20nickname%3F%20%22Quad,to%20do%20so.\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">self-proclaimed Quad God\u2019s promise<\/a>, so let\u2019s explore why many folks believe the rising star could become the greatest figure skater of all time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc40 What sets Malinin apart?: <\/strong>Figure skating is a sport of precision and audacity. Similar to legendary Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Malinin\u2019s routines often have a higher degree of difficulty compared to his competitors because he can perform skills that others simply cannot.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Case in point? During December\u2019s Grand Prix Final, he completed <em>seven<\/em> quad jumps (more on those later) in a single program. And then there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/3AjBlK4oZ1w?si=4xbe0Eo3txo2_uBT\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">his signature backflip<\/a>, a move that was banned in figure skating until 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>That said, Malinin\u2019s debut Olympics haven\u2019t been picture-perfect. He finished second in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/olympics\/news\/why-ilia-malinin-lost-team-short-program-figure-skating-japan-yuma-kagiyama\/e8fc24986fb14e5f91d3fc5a#:~:text=How%20did%20Ilia%20Malinin%20lose,a%20higher%20total%20element%20score\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">team event short program<\/a>, a shock considering he was the heavy favorite, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pRpI03Dmtks&amp;themeRefresh=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">found redemption<\/a> in his long program to clinch Team USA the gold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\ude35\u200d\ud83d\udcab Let\u2019s talk about the quadruple axel:<\/strong> The quad axel \u2014 a jump that features four and a half rotations \u2014 is the most difficult skill in figure skating. It\u2019s <em>so <\/em>hard that only one person has ever landed it in competition, and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qDOQ8e8lhVs?t=39\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">that\u2019s Malinin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Quad God notably has yet to perform the skill in Milan. Will he pull it out of his bag of tricks today? Find out when he goes for gold, and looks to write another chapter in his growing legend, today at 1 p.m. ET.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/the-weight-of-expectation-ilia-malinin-goes-for-gold-in-todays-mens-free-skate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Today\u2019s the day \u2014 21-year-old American Ilia Malinin, who leads the men\u2019s individual figure skating competition following Tuesday\u2019s short program, will skate for gold. Much has been made of the self-proclaimed Quad God\u2019s promise, so let\u2019s explore why many folks believe the rising star could become the greatest figure skater of all time. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-228320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}