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Malinin meltdown hands Shaidorov Olympic men's figure skating gold / Photo: WANG Zhao - AFP
Malinin meltdown hands Shaidorov Olympic men's figure skating gold
US star Ilia Malinin suffered the biggest upset of the Winter Olympics on Friday as the overwhelming favourite for the men's figure skating title fell twice to finish off the podium, with Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan taking a surprise gold.
Malinin, a two-time defending world champion and undefeated for over two years, had been leading after Tuesday's short programme, but he capitulated and ultimately finished 15th in the free skate and eighth overall with a score of 264.49 after an error-strewn routine.
"I was not expecting that. I felt like going into this competition I was so ready," the 21-year-old said.
"I just felt ready getting on that ice. But I think maybe that might have been the reason, that maybe I was too confident it was going to go well. Honestly, it happened. I can't process what just happened. So it happens."
"I think it was definitely mental."
Malinin failed to reproduce the form that sealed team gold for the United States last Sunday.
Taking to the ice last to a deafening roar from the crowd in a shimmering all-black costume featuring gold details the skater known as the 'Quad God' looked out of sorts from the outset.
He popped his opening quadruple flip jump and singled his second quadruple axel, which he had been attempting to become the first skater to land at an Olympics.
He fell on his quad lutz and double salchow with only three clean quads in his routine to the song "The Ball" by Asaf Avidan, "The Smell of the Sea" by Alan Mayer and "Code Duello" by Power-Haus and Sergiu-Dan Muresan.
After his performance, Malinin buried his face in his hands, realising the disaster that had just unfolded as his father and coach looked shellshocked in the "Kiss and Cry" area.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, who had been second after the short programme, also fell during his routine along with France's Adam Siao Him Fa who had been third.
But Shaidorov surged from fifth after the short programme to take a surprise gold.
Shaidorov's free skate to "The Diva Dance" earned him personal best scores of 198.64 for the routine and 291.58 overall, racking up 21.53 points for his technically difficult opening triple axel-quad salchow combination.
Kagiyama took silver, as he did in Beijing four years ago (280.06 points), ahead of compatriot Shun Sato (274.90 points) who moved up from ninth.
X.Francois--PS
