Team USA figure skater Ilia Malinin faced immense pressure at the Milan Cortina Olympics, where expectations were high for the athlete known as the “Quad God.”
“It’s a very unpleasant feeling. You feel really heavy on the inside,” Malinin said. “That’s something that I really felt going into even my first day at the Olympics. And slowly over time, it just built up more and more and more, and really just got to me. A lot of athletes would not want to deal with having a bad performance, especially on the biggest stage of their life. But again, I’m always reminding myself that this is sport. This is part of it.
“And you learn more through losing than winning,” Malinin added.
Malinin won gold with Team USA in the figure skating team event. But he dropped to eighth place in the men’s singles event. He went into that event as the gold medal favorite.
Malinin is only 21 years old. He’d go into a second Olympics older and a lot wiser from his experience at the Milan Cortina Olympics. Fans will get to see Malinin skate one more time in Milan at the closing gala on Saturday. Then, he’ll skate at the World Championships in Prague next month.
