Shaidorov Stuns With 291.58 Points for Figure Skating Gold as Malinin Falls Twice to Eighth
On February 13, 2026, the men's singles title in figure skating at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics was decided at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Assago, in the Metropolitan City of Milan in Italy's Lombardy region: Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, fifth after the short program, produced a personal-best 198.64 points in the free skate to win gold with a career-best total of 291.58 points in a major upset. The Olympic Council of Asia and multiple same-day reports recorded the result.
Shaidorov, 21, set personal bests in both the free skate (198.64) and the total (291.58). It was Kazakhstan's first Olympic gold medal in figure skating and the country's second Winter Olympic gold ever, after Vladimir Smirnov won the 50 km cross-country title at Lillehammer 1994. Japan took the other podium places: Yuma Kagiyama won silver, his second consecutive Olympic silver medal, and Shun Sato took bronze.
The overwhelming favorite, Ilia Malinin of the United States, had led the short program with 108.16 points by more than five points, but his free skate unraveled: he bailed out of his planned quadruple Axel into a single Axel and later fell twice, finishing eighth with 264.49 points, his worst total in nearly four years. The result ended a two-plus-year unbeaten streak covering 14 full competitions; he is the two-time reigning world champion. He had already won team gold with the United States at these Games.
Shaidorov had previously won silver at the 2025 World Championships.
Related: Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Open With Four-Site Ceremony and Two Cauldrons Lit at Once
Related: Alysa Liu Wins Olympic Figure Skating Gold in Milan, Ending a 24-Year U.S. Drought
Source: Olympic Council of Asia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国花滑选手 Ilia Malinin 在米兰—科尔蒂纳2026冬奥会花样滑冰比赛中（2026年2月）。YantsImages 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin competing in figure skating at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics (February 2026). Photo by YantsImages, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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