Superstar Ilia Malinin sealed back-to-back figure skating gold for the United States in the team event at the Milano/Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday. The US, the 2022 champions, had dropped to second in the standings after women's free skating earlier, but Malinin put them back at the top despite a shaky performance in the men's free skating.
Superstar Ilia Malinin sealed back-to-back figure skating gold for the United States in the team event at the Milano/Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday.
The US, the 2022 champions, had dropped to second in the standings after women's free skating earlier, but Malinin put them back at the top despite a shaky performance in the men's free skating.
Bronze went to Italy after an emotional performance from Matteo Rizzo.
Malinin opted for the triple Axel, instead of the quad at the beginning of his act. On a quad Lutz, he put two hands down and didn't get the combination off.
But while Sato Shun got a new personal best, it still wasn't enough to beat Malinin's 200.03 points.
The US topped the final standings with 69 placement points, with Japan finishing one point behind, and Italy were further eight points back.
The Italian crowd started to cheer before Rizzo's program was even done, while the skater broke into tears after his performance as he realized that it might just had been enough for a medal - and the expectations were confirmed once his score was out.
The team event combines the four Olympic figure skating disciplines (men's singles, women's singles, pairs and ice dance) into a single event.
Skaters earn points based on their placement in each discipline, and the gold medals are awarded to the team that earns the most placement points.
Competition started on Friday and medals were handed after the decisive men's free skating.
Category: General Sports
