Ilia Malinin experiences a first setback at the Winter Olympics in Italy. In the short program of the team competition, the new figure skating superstar only achieved second place. Will the 21-year-old be evaluated fairly?
Figure skating superstar Ilia Malinin suffered her first setback in the team competition at the Olympic Games in Italy. The US prodigy only took second place in the short program with 98.00 points and was more than ten points behind the Japanese Yuma Kagiyama, who achieved 108.67 points with a brilliant performance.
Malinin, the son of Uzbek immigrants, is also known as the “Quadruple God” because of his many quadruple jumps. In December he achieved the best score ever of 238.24 points in a free program at the Grand Prix Final. In Milan he showed some weaknesses in his first appearance – including the triple Axel. But the 21-year-old is still on course for gold with the USA.
But perhaps the question arises as to whether the rapid climber only has to fight with his nervousness at the Olympics or also with the judges. According to ARD commentator Daniel Weiss, himself a two-time German figure skating champion, Malinin sometimes has problems with triple jumps because he actually jumps them four times.
“He will be punished very severely there too”
“He is used to showing the Axel four and a half times and therefore misses the landing phase,” said Weiss on Saturday. During another jump, which the young American is said to have under-rotated, Weiss said: “I think he will be punished very severely there too.” His conclusion: “These 98 points are a slap in the face for him. That’s really bitter.”
And so the USA leads at halftime with 34 points, just ahead of Japan (33 points). After the rhythm dance in the ice dance and the short programs for pairs, women and men, host Italy took third place with 28 points.
A total of ten nations took part in the competition. The rankings are added together for the total number of points – a win gets the most points, and last place gets the fewest points. The best five teams qualified for the free program. The decision will be made on Sunday evening (9:55 p.m.) with the men’s free skate. The German team did not qualify.
SUF/mel/dpa
