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Ilia Malinin falls twice as Kazakhstan’s Shaidorov stuns field for Olympic gold

Par :Bryan Armen Graham at the Milano Ice Skating Arena

13 février 2026 à 23:12

Heavy US favorite falls twice in the free skate
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov claims shock title

For nearly two years, Ilia Malinin has made men’s figure skating feel predictable in the most spectacular of ways. On Friday night on the southern outskirts of Milan, the Olympic Games reminded the sport, and perhaps Malinin himself, that predictability is never guaranteed on its biggest stage.

The overwhelming favorite entering the free skate, the 21-year-old American instead saw the Olympic title slip away to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov after an error-strewn performance that will go down among the biggest shocks in modern figure skating history.

Skating body defends Olympic judging after French duo’s ice dance gold

The Guardian

Par :Bryan Armen Graham at the Milano Ice Skating Arena

13 février 2026 à 17:52

French judge marked French duo higher than US pair
Petition calling for probe approaches 15,000 signatures
ISU says it has ‘full confidence’ in scoring system

The International Skating Union (ISU) has defended the integrity of Olympic ice dance judging after a single judge’s scoring gap became central to the outcome of the gold medal contest, insisting variations across panels are expected and that safeguards exist to prevent bias from determining results.

In a statement released on Friday, the governing body rejected suggestions that the judging system failed during the competition, in which France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron narrowly defeated Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates in one of the closest and most disputed finishes of the Milano Cortina Games.