Ilia Malinin's stunning free skate secures US figure skating team gold at Milan Cortina Olympics

MILAN (AP) — Ilia Malinin beat Japanese rival Shun Sato in a head-to-head showdown at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday night, helping the U.S. defend its team figure skating gold medal by breaking a deadlock with Japan in the final session of the competition.

The 21-year-old nicknamed the “Quad God” landed five quadruple jumps and scored 200.03 points for his free skate, atoning for his mediocre short program — at least by his lofty standards — one night earlier. Sato followed him with three quads in his program, but he could only manage 194.86 points, leaving the Japanese with a second straight silver medal in the team event.

The U.S. ended up on 69 points while Japan finished with 68. Matteo Rizzo delivered one of the best free skates of his career as Italy was trying to hold onto the bronze medal, allowing the host nation to finish third with 60 points.

Georgia wound up fourth with 56. It still has never medaled in any sport at the Winter Games.

The U.S. had a five-point lead over Japan after two days of competition. But the advantage dwindled to nothing when world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs free skate and Kaori Sakamoto won the women's free skate earlier Sunday night.

Leave it to the best closer in the business to deliver for the Americans.

Malinin opened with a big quad flip, opted for a safer triple axel over his quad, and overcome a couple of mistakes along the way to finish with aplomb. The son of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov ended with back-to-back combos, a quad toe-triple flip and a quad salchow-triple axel, leaving a crowd full of American and Japanese fans roaring in approval.

Sato did everything he could to give Japan a chance.

From his opening quad lutz to his finishing triple lutz, the Japanese star was nearly perfect, producing an easier but cleaner program than Malinin had earlier. He pumped his fist the moment his music ended, then had to wait to hear whether it was enough.

It wasn't quite.

The pairs were first on the ice Sunday night, and Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea delivered the best free skate of their pairs career when the U.S. needed it the most, beating the Canadians to avoid dropping a much-needed point to the winning Japanese pairs team.

Kam and O'Shea scored 135.36 points for their program, which opened with “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics and finished with “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. Miura and Kihara won the segment with a career-best of their own of 155.55 points, pulling the Japanese to within two points of the Americans with two events remaining.

“We couldn’t be more proud to be able to perform under what we felt was so much energy,” said the 34-year-old O’Shea, who was an Olympic alternate in 2018 but is making his debut at the Winter Games. "We walked into the day, walked into the rink with positive emotions, with an offensive attitude, and that showed out there on the ice."

Then the women took the stage with the U.S. swapping out world champion Alysa Liu for Amber Glenn.

The three-time national champion spun out of her opening triple axel, the most difficult triple jump and one only she tried among the women, and Glenn had to add a late double toe loop after missing an earlier triple as part of a combination. Those two mistakes, and a couple of other errors along the way, left her with 138.62 points — and more crucially, third in the segment.

Kaori Sakamoto, the individual bronze medalist at the Beijing Games, won the free skate with 148.62 points, pulling Japan into a tie for the lead. Anastasiia Gubanova took second in the free skate as she tried to keep Georgia in the race for bronze.

“It wasn’t how I wanted to feel,” Glenn said afterward. “The adrenaline was really up and I think I just crashed a little bit.”

Malinin was there to pick her and the rest of the American team up.

AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Ilia Malinin of the United States competes during the figure skating men's team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Amber Glenn of the United States competes during the figure skating women's team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan competes during the figure skating women's team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Amber Glenn of the United States reacts to her scores after competing during the figure skating women's team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy compete during the figure skating pairs team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan compete during the figure skating pairs team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan compete during the figure skating pairs team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea of the United States compete during the figure skating pairs team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea of the United States compete during the figure skating pairs team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government on Sunday released from prison several prominent opposition members, including one of the closest allies of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, after lengthy politically motivated detentions.

Their releases come as the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political beliefs. They also follow a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Today, we are being released,” Juan Pablo Guanipa, a Machado ally and former governor, said in a video posted on X. “Much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront.”

Guanipa, who spent more than eight months in custody, was released from a detention facility in the capital, Caracas. An armored vehicle and officers appeared behind him in the video he released.

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people on Sunday.

In addition to Guanipa, Machado’s political organization said several of its members were among the released, including Maria Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Machado's attorney, Perkins Rocha, was also freed.

“Let’s go for the freedom of Venezuela!” Machado posted on X.

Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to boycott that month's legislative election. Guanipa's brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said that the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.

“Thinking differently cannot be criminalized in Venezuela, and today, Juan Pablo Guanipa is a prisoner of conscience of this regime,” Tomás Guanipa said after the arrest. “He has the right to think as he thinks, the right to defend his ideas, and the right to be treated under a constitution that is not being enforced today.”

Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela's acting president after the capture in Caracas of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. military last month.

Her government announced on Jan. 8 it would free a significant number of prisoners — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.

The ruling party-controlled National Assembly this week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners. The opposition and nongovernmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism as well as with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Friday posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a detention center in Caracas and saying that “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.

Delcy Rodríguez and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement said he “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a roadmap for dialogue and reconciliation in which human rights should be at the centre" and then “deployed a team” to the South American country.

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa speaks after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition supporters greet political activist Jesus Armas after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa greets political activist Jesus Armas after their release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Political activist Jesus Armas is embraced by opposition supporters after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

FILE - Opposition lawmaker Juan Pablo Guanipa displays a sign that reads in Spanish "More than a million residents of Zulia State eat only once a day" during an intervention against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at National Assembly, in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)