Figure skater Ilia Malinin blamed his poor performance Friday at the Winter Olympics on not being chosen for the 2022 Beijing Olympics team.
In a hot-mic moment picked up by USA Today, Malinin waited for his score in the “kiss-and-cry” area and said, “Beijing, I would not have skated like that.”
NBC analyst Johnny Weir interpreted the comment as saying he would done better with previous Olympics experience. NBC’s Mike Tirico brought it up later on Friday in the Milan studio with Weir.
Malinin appeared to confirm the remark when asked about it.
“I think if I went to ’22, then I would have had more experience and know how to handle this Olympic environment,” he said, per USA Today. “But also, I don’t know what the next stages of my life would look like if I went there.”
