Quad God Ilia Malinin just might be human after all

IliA Malinin looking perplexed by his mistakes In team event short program.

Yes, there has been a lot of attention on figure skater Ilia Malinin, to the point where someone just dropping in on the sport would have been utterly shocked to see what happened when Malinin made his Olympic debut in the short program of the team event.

Isn’t this guy supposed to be the quadg0d? An overwhelming favorite for the men’s singles gold medal? Winner of the last two world titles?

Then how did he finish second Saturday at the Milano Ice Center Arena to Yuma Kagiyama of Japan…and by 10 points??

On ice, of course, even the divine can slip into fallibility, as Malinin did, losing points on an under-rotated quad Lutz jump and a spin that did not get the maximum base value.

And this wasn’t the first time Kagiyama had beaten Malinin in a short program. In fact, it happened in their last meeting, at the Grand Prix Final in December.

For the whole story on nbcolympics.com, please click here