After an uncharacteristically shocking performance at the Milan Cortina Olympics and walking away without an individual medal, Ilia Malinin is choosing to make the most of his failure. “I learned that I am definitely stronger on the inside than I thought I would be,” Malinin said in one-on-o ne interview with NBC 4’s Bruce Beck. The 21-year-old entered the 2026 Winter Games under an intense spotlight. The two-time world champion had won 14 straight events heading into the Olympics, and was heavily favored to win a gold medal in the men’s figure skating individual event. And then there’s his nickname: “Quad God.” Malanin is the first skater to land a quadruple axel — a four-and-a-half rotation jump — in competition. He’s also the first skater ever to land seven quad jumps in a single program. Talk about pressure. “It’s a very unpleasant feeling,” Malinin explained. “You feel really heavy on the inside. 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 it really just got to me.” Malinin’s first skate on Olympic ice was in the team event. His program wasn’t without error — he put both hands down after completing a quad Lutz, losing points on what was meant to be a Lutz-Axel combination. It was enough, though, as the Americans secured their second consecutive gold medal in the team event. The pressure of expectations came to a head Friday night during the final portion of the men’s competition. Malinin completed a program riddled with errors and sank his chances of finishing on the podium. “It’s something that a lot of athletes would not want to deal with, is having a bad performance, especially on the biggest stage of their life. But I’m always reminding myself that this is sport and this is part of it. You learn more from losing than you do winning,” said Malinin. Losing is not synonymous with Malinin’s career, but a defeat on the biggest stage of his career would result in a hard-learned lesson in character. Malinin, once a lock for a second gold medal, classily congratulated Mikhail Shaidorov, who would unexpectedly bring gold home to Kazakhstan. He then stopped for an interview with NBC Sports’ Andrea Joyce, maintaining his poise as he explained the mental aspect behind his skate. “I was not expecting that,” Malinin said in his post-skate interview. “It happened, I can’t process what just happened.” Days later, a more reflective response from the first-time Olympian. “No matter how many medals you have, the person inside you really shows in how you deal with it, how you handle things, and how you are as a person in general,” Malinin said. “A medal doesn’t show who you are.” And still, Malinin remains an Olympic gold medalist, but the quest for more has already commenced. He calls his individual skate his motivation to earn a trip to the French Alps in 2030. “It’s going to be why I’m going to continue to skate and really try just to embrace everything I’ve done and really just go out there and enjoy another Olympic Games.” A confident response from a legend in the making. ...read more read less