By Lori Ewing
MILAN, Feb 8 (Reuters) – American Ilia Malinin arrived at the Milano Cortina Olympics as such an overwhelming favourite that the focus of the men’s figure skating event has all but shifted from the competition for gold to a calculation of the margin by which he will claim it.
Over the past two years, the 21-year-old has built one of the most dominant streaks in modern figure skating, winning the last two world championships, the last three Grand Prix Finals, and four consecutive U.S. titles.
He routinely defeats the field by eye‑popping spreads — 29.88 points at the 2025 Grand Prix Final, more than 30 at the 2025 World Championships, and a massive 57.26 points at the 2026 U.S. Championships — making his supremacy less a storyline than a statistical certainty.
“He pushes the computers to their absolute limit. How many different kinds of quads can you add into one scoring system?” former U.S. Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon told Reuters in Milan.
No other skater matches his technical firepower, anchored by the fully rotated quadruple Axel that only he has landed successfully in international competition.
He also became the first skater in history to land seven quads in a programme.
He had a shaky Olympic debut, though, finishing second behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama in Saturday’s short programme of the team event. But it is not the first time. He sat third after the short at the Grand Prix Final in December, but roared back into the lead after a free skate stacked with quads.
“I’m so glad I am sitting and watching it and not having to be a part of it — it is truly science fiction from what I was doing back in the day,” 1980 Olympic men’s champion Robin Cousins said on Saturday night’s BBC broadcast.
With a resume already bordering on historic and the quad Axel as his signature, Malinin has even teased a quintuple jump at the Olympics in what would be a seismic breakthrough in the sport.
He had previously said he would wait until after the Games to unveil the five-revolution jump amid chatter he has successfully landed them in training.
Asked if we might see a quint at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, he said with a smile: “Maybe, maybe not. I give too many hints sometimes.”
Malinin’s striking free programme, entitled “A Voice,” features his own voice playing over the soundtrack, with lines such as “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing” and “Embrace the storm.”
Combined with his consistency and depth, he is in a class of his own in his Olympic debut, meaning the real drama should unfold behind him — a wide‑open chase for silver among the likes of Kagiyama and Adam Siao Him Fa of France.
Kagiyama is a three-times world silver medallist and finished runner-up to Malinin at the last two Grand Prix Finals.
His free programme — to composer Christopher Tin’s bespoke four-minute edit of his own Turandot ending – is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, 100 years after the famous opera premiered in Milan.
Double European champion Siao Him Fa is another major threat for the podium. His explosive rise on the Grand Prix circuit and strong 2025–26 campaign make him a leading candidate to push for a medal.
The men’s short programme is on Tuesday, followed by the free skate on Friday.
Malinin’s dominance has fundamentally reshaped expectations heading into Milan, however, with a technical ceiling so far above the rest of the field that barring injury or a monumental collapse, he stands as one of the safest gold medal picks at the entire Winter Games.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Additional reporting by Rory Carroll and Agnieszka Flak in Milan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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