‘Quad God’ 1 of Many American Athletes Forced to Find Silver Lining at Olympics

Just like many other U.S. athletes at the Milan Cortina Olympics, even the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin suffered a fall from grace.

The overwhelming favorite to win the men’s figure skating gold medal, Malinin tumbled twice on Friday, dropping from a big lead after the short program to a stunning eighth-place finish in the competition.

His free skate simply mimicked the kind of freefall the United States has been experiencing over the first week of these Winter Games.

Chloe Kim had been the headliner in the crash-out clubhouse until Malinin took the ice. Kim, who was looking to become the first snowboarder to capture three consecutive Olympic titles on the men’s or women’s side, stood at the top of the hill for her final try and knew she needed a strong run to take the gold.

The 25-year-old, who after the qualifying round said she snowboards better than she walks, crash landed on that last run and finished the event staring directly at a silver lining in second place.

Kim was in danger of having to skip the Milan Cortina Games because of a shoulder injury she sustained while training last month in Switzerland. But it didn’t impact her performance, she said.

Elsewhere, in the figure skating competition, ice dancing pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates found themselves embroiled in a scoring controversy after a difficult-to-accept silver in their event.

The pair, heavily favored to take the gold medal in Italy, reportedly urged vetting of the French judge after the two finished 1.43 points shy of the Olympic title, which went to France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.

Scores awarded from the French judge in question, Jezabel Dabouis, appeared online—137.45 points for the duo from her home country, but 129.74 points for the United States. She was the lone judge to award the U.S. pair less than 130.

Meanwhile, the best possible U.S. duo in Alpine skiing fell out of the running in the new women’s team combined event.

Mikaela Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, teamed up with Breezy Johnson in the combined event, and the pair had the lead after Johnson’s first run. But Shiffrin’s run in the slalom portion was 15th out of the 18 racers who finished the course and their combined time was only good enough for fourth place—0.06 seconds out of a spot on the podium.

Even in curling, the United States got stoned just short of the ultimate prize.

Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin fell 6–5 to Sweden in the gold-medal match on Tuesday, but still became the first Americans to earn a medal in mixed doubles.

So Malinin’s pressurized performance was somewhat on brand for the United States at these Games.

Afterward, the 21-year-old, whose high number of quadruple jumps in his routines landed him the Quad God moniker, uttered words the rest of the world probably expressed in hundreds of languages.

“I was not expecting that,” the first-time Olympian said in a post-skate interview on NBC. “I felt like, going into this competition, I was so ready. I just felt ready getting on that ice.

“But I think maybe that might have been the reason—maybe I was too confident that it was going to go well. Honestly, it just happened … I can’t process what just happened. It happens,” said Malinin, who collected 108.16 points for a five-point lead over Yuma Kagiyama of Japan after the short program.

Malinin didn’t make excuses, taking ownership of the above-the-neck reason for his performance.

“I think it was definitely mental,” he said. “Like just now finally experiencing that Olympic atmosphere—it’s crazy. It’s not like any other competition. It’s really different.

“I’m still so grateful 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.”

Malinin did put a positive spin on being in the spotlight on the world’s biggest stage and coming away empty-handed.

“I think, obviously, take the stuff I learned from here and use it to my knowledge to see what I can do in the future for this to not happen,” he said.

Short-track speedskating, snowboard cross, and other events in which the United States couldn’t reach the podium have contributed to what might be considered a disappointing showing in Italy. The United States was at 17 total medals—five gold and eight silver—with Norway at 20 (10 gold, three silver) and host Italy 18 (six gold, nine bronze) through Saturday’s action.

However, the Americans have enough time and some golden dreams in several events—particularly men’s and women’s hockey—over the second week to make a run and halt the letdowns in Italy.