Winter Olympics: Unexpected victory in exciting men’s figure skating event

Before the Olympics even started, the results of the men’s figure skating events were widely considered to be a foregone conclusion. The undisputed favourite for the gold medal was 21-year old Ilia Malinin, two time national and world champion, who had been undefeated in competition since 2023, but the other podium places were highly contested between other elite skaters like Yuma Kagiyama, Adam Siao Him Fa, Shun Sato and Mikhael Shaidorov. Like the other figure skating disciplines, the men’s event is split into a short program and a free skate.

All eyes were on Ilia Malinin as he took to the ice

Unfortunately, Team GB did not have an entry into the men’s event – Team GB’s only male skater, Edward Appleby, qualified for the team event but not for the individual. Even without that, the short program was highly entertaining, with several skaters standing out above the rest. One of these was Junwhan Cha, who improved on his team event performance, landing the triple axel he missed there as well as a quad salchow opener and a lutz-loop combo, with a gorgeously dramatic step sequence, a season’s best performance. Fan favourite Kevin Aymoz, from France, skated in his typical dramatic fashion to a Lady Gaga medley, showcasing his dynamic musicality, and ended up achieving one of the highest artistic scores across the entire men’s event. Team France’s other entry, Adam Siao Him Fa, skated his program with his typical high-speed energy and incredibly clean jumps. Second-place skater Yuma Kagiyama also had a high energy program, leaning into the jazz elements with beautiful performance skills showcased in a very musical, and fast, step sequence despite stepping out on his triple axel.

All eyes were on Ilia Malinin as he took to the ice – he had skated on Olympic ice during the team event but hadn’t included his famous quad axel, which he remains the only male skater in the world to have landed in international competition. He delivered, sailing into first place but not with the same incredibly large margins he has in previous competitions – every jump was clean, although he downgraded the quad axel to a triple, and received some criticism for his exaggerated facial expressions throughout.

Although the short program is – obviously – important, the free skate is the medal event, where the Olympic champion is decided, and during this event, absolutely nothing went the way anyone had expected. The first surprise came from Kazakhstan’s Mikhael Shaidorov. He is from a small skating federation as opposed to his rivals, who skate for powerhouses in the sport like Japan, France and the USA, and had a rather forgettable short program, set to music from the Dune soundtrack (somewhat overplayed this season), but he has been considered one to watch all season, and in the free program delivered on this reputation.

The immediate aftermath of the competition ending led to some moments of heart-warming sportsmanship

His opening jumping pass was a triple axel-quad salchow, which was an insane base value score of 18 points, and continued to deliver, with nearly all his jumps in the opening minute being quads, and had a completely clean skate. After this performance, he was leading the standings by quite a way, although his biggest rivals were still to skate. Adam Siao Him Fa received cheers from the audience as he skated out, and the artistic elements of his program showed why – his arty choreography was visually very striking, his costume changed colour mid program, and he successfully landed his fan-favourite backflip – a move that only recently became legal in international competition. However, that was some of the only successes of his program, as he fell or stepped out of nearly all of his jumps, leaving the ice visibly devastated.

Yuma Kagiyama, too, found success in his artistry, matching his dramatic music choice, but fell out of or downgraded nearly all of his jumps. By this point, the commentators and most of the audience was questioning what was going on – this rate of falls is incredibly usual in elite figure skating, especially for male skaters of this caliber. As the winner of the short program, Ilia Malinin took the ice last, and everyone expected him to be the skater who knocked Shaidorov – who had unexpectedly been leading since his skate – off the top spot. However, it was not to be. Malinin has this season been opening his program with the quad axel, which fans had been waiting for him to jump on Olympic ice for the entire time, but he dramatically popped* it into a double instead, and the rest of the program was plagued with deeply uncharacteristic jump errors – he popped and/or fell on three other jump elements, all planned quads, which took him down to eighth in the free skate and out of medal contention entirely, meaning that Mikhael Shaidorov took the gold.

Despite this very unexpected turn of events, the immediate aftermath of the competition ending led to some moments of heart-warming sportsmanship. Despite his clear disappointment, Ilia Malinin immediately went over to congratulate a stunned Shaidorov, and Yuma Kagiyama congratulated Shun Sato, the bronze medalist, who was overcome with tears at his success.