Ilia Malinin ready to jump to next level after dominating men’s short program

MILAN — Two-time world champion Ilia Malinin signaled that the Olympic individual title is his to lose, delivering a commanding short-program performance that left even his closest pursuer sounding resigned to silver.

Skating with the composure of a veteran who has already survived one Olympic scare, Malinin reeled off a quad flip, a triple Axel, and a quad Lutz-triple toe combination to post 108.16 points and open a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. The margin felt wider: Kagiyama, renowned for surgical exactness, dropped a boot on his triple Axel and never recovered, finishing on 103.07.

“Coming to the Olympics, I thought that I just can take it the same way as any competition,” Malinin said, “but sometimes it really just still overwhelms you.”

The 19-year-old American admitted the team-event short program had rattled him; he skated tight and was beaten by Kagiyama by ten points. The experience forced a reset. “I definitely decided to try a different strategy,” he explained. “Just try to calm things down and enjoy my time on the ice.”

The recalibration worked. By the time Malinin punched the air after landing his combination, he was already shadow-boxing off the ice, certain the judges would reward both his athleticism and new-found poise.

Kagiyama, who has never captured an individual global gold, offered a blunt assessment of the challenge ahead in Friday’s free skate: “I’m starting to think he’s invincible.”

The free skate plays directly into Malinin’s hands. While the short program caps jump opportunities at four, the long allows him to unleash all six quads in his arsenal—including the quad Axel no other competitor attempts. Malinin frequently alters his layout mid-program, treating choreography as a living score rather than sheet music.

Hamilton, who captured Olympic gold in 1984 after a shaky short program, sees a familiar trajectory. “I was fine until the middle of warm-ups,” he recalled of his Sarajevo experience. “And then it was dum-DUM-BIG TIME.” Hamilton ultimately prevailed on the strength of his compulsory figures; Malinin’s safety net is a free skate that can stretch his margin into double digits.

Unless disaster strikes before Friday, the American enters the final phase of the competition not merely as favorite, but as the one man in the field capable of deciding the contest on his terms.