This was quite unexpected.
Why Ilia Malinin lost team short program in figure skating to Japan's Yuma Kagiyama originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ilia Malinin hadn't finished outside of first place in any figure skating events he's competed in for multiple years.
And while it wasn't the most important one he'll have at the 2026 Winter Olympics, that's what happened for the United States star on Saturday in Italy.
Malinin was skating in the team event in the short program portion, and he put up a 98.00. That was only good for second place.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama put up a 108.67, and his joy showed when he saw that score on the screen.
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How did Ilia Malinin lose to Yuma Kagiyama?
There were two aspects at play here: technical difficulty and execution.
Kagiyama actually had a slightly higher program component score and a higher total element score.
The NBC commentators showed that Malinin only had one jump in which he wasn't docked at least a little bit of points.
Kagiyama, on this day, was a little cleaner and actually had a slightly higher difficulty.
Malinin didn't use his signature quad axel maneuver, which could've bridged the gap to some extent.
The U.S. star did do a backflip, but that's not factored into scoring that is mostly based on a predetermined set of maneuvers that hasn't changed.
Malinin still got the United States solid points with his second-place finish toward trying to get a team event championship.
But as far as individual competition goes, Malinin now knows he'll have to be well aware of Kagiyama.
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Category: General Sports
