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 upsets in modern figure skating history.
Shaidorov’s season-best total of 291.58 vaulted him from fifth after the short program as one favored contender after another faltered. Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (280.06) and Shun Sato (274.90) took silver and bronze respectively on a night where even the sport’s most reliable jump technicians struggled to hold programs together.
