MILAN (AP) — Ilia Malinin need only to have looked into the stands on Friday night, where Nathan Chen watched as the American figure skating sensation known as the “Quad god” fell apart in his Olympic free skate, for inspiration about what might come next.
The overwhelming favorite to win gold, Malinin fell twice amid a calamitous program that he seemingly had perfected over the past year, sending him tumbling from first place all the way off the podium and allowing Mikhail Shaidorov to claim gold instead.
It bore an eerie resemblance to the scene that unfolded at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Chen, who like Malinin had been groomed by Hall of Fame coach Rafael Arutyunyan, was considered the favorite along with Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu to stand atop the podium in South Korea. Instead, Chen fell once during his short program and struggled through the rest of it, leaving him so far behind that not even his winning free skate could earn him a medal.
One month later, he won his first world title. Four years later, Chen won Olympic gold in Beijing.
“I can’t go back and change it, even though I would love to,” Malinin said, candidly. “You have to take what happened or what you’ve learned from this and really just change or decide what you want to do for the future, and how to approach things.”
What made the 21-year-old Malinin's fall so stunning was not just that he has been the dominant skater of his generation, building an unbeaten streak stretching back more than two years and claiming the past two world championships with relative ease.
It's that everything was setting up perfectly for him.
One by one, the skaters before him Friday night had problems of their own, falling on ice shared by speedskating that some lamented was not the best of surfaces. Italy's Daniel Grassl crashed out of podium contention, as did Adam Siao Him Fa of France.
Shaidorov was the only one who managed a memorable performance, and he had started the night in sixth place.
So Malinin, whose free skate clinched team gold for the Americans on Sunday, headed out one more time with a big buffer between him and the competition. He need only have put together a dialed-back version of the hardest planned program of anyone — as he did at the U.S. championships last month — to win his second gold medal of the Milan Cortina Games.
“That first quad and several of the quads, they felt really ideal,” Malinin said. “I was prepared well enough.”
Yet the problems began after he landed a quad lutz. Malinin doubled up a planned quad loop, fell on another quad lutz — preventing him from doing the second half of a combination sequence — and made a mess of his final jumping pass. What was supposed to be a high-scoring quad salchow-triple axel became only a pedestrian double salchow, and Malinin even fell on that.
“It's really difficult when everyone assumes that he will get gold. There's this pressure,” said Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, the last man to have beaten Malinin way back in 2023, and the men's silver medalist for the second consecutive Winter Games.
“His performance, if I may comment, was a little bit unusual. But it really proves that this is the Olympics. Things can happen.”
Malinin acknowledged the pressure had gotten to him during a relatively poor short program in the team event. And he still seemed to be a little off in the free skate the following night, even though it was enough to give him at least one gold medal from Milan.
“We saw that even he is human,” Grassl said, “and these things can happen to anyone.”
Malinin was nothing if not noble in defeat.
He gave Shaidorov a hug as he walked out of the arena, whispering in his ear, “You deserve it.” Then he answered the same question, over and over, for dozens of TV crews and reporters from all over the world: What just happened?
“It's almost like I wasn't aware of where I was in the program,” Malinin said. “Usually I have more time and more feeling of how it is, but this time, it all went by so fast, and I really didn't have time to make those changes or make that process different.”
“I was really confident, just feeling really good about it,” he said, “and then it's like it's right there, and it just left your hands.”
The end of one disastrous free skate will hardly be the end for Malinin, though. He's still the reigning world champion, the best figure skater of his generation, and again the overwhelming favorite to win Olympic gold four years from now in France.
“The pressure of the Olympics really gets you. People say there’s an Olympic curse, that the Olympic gold medal favorite is always going to skate bad at the Olympics," he said. “It’s really not easy, but I’m still proud of being able to get to the finish.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts at the end of his program after competing during the men's free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts after competing while Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan is seen on left while waiting for scores during the men's free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts at the end of his program after competing during the men's free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan acknowledges that sharing a name and party affiliation with the incumbent Republican gives him “an instant megaphone" in the crowded primary race. But Sullivan said his campaign isn't a sham or something Democrats put him up to doing.
He said friends for years have jokingly referred to him as senator and asked if he has ever thought about running. He said he’s been considering it for more than a decade.
“This is my choice,” Sullivan, who lives in the small fishing community of Petersburg, said in a telephone interview Monday.
Last week, Sen. Dan Sullivan accused the challenger Sullivan of “trying to trick” voters to help his main rival in the race, Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. The senator suggested the other Sullivan's entrance in the August primary was part of a coordinated effort by Democrats and Peltola's campaign to confuse voters, an accusation they deny. He threatened litigation to get to the bottom of it.
The issue is of national concern to Republicans because they are seeking to hold onto their majority in the U.S. Senate in what is expected to be a difficult midterm election year for the party in power. Sullivan, the challenger, dismissed claims that his candidacy is a merely a ruse to undermine the senator's reelection chances.
He said he has had no contact with Peltola's campaign — “zero, none, zilch” — and said “no” when asked if anyone from the state Democratic Party or any national Democratic operatives had contacted him to run.
A Peltola spokesperson, Harry Child, has said the campaign “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” The executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, Jenny-Marie Stryker, said her organization “is in no way affiliated with either Dan Sullivan.” A Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson, Monica Robinson, replied “no” when asked if the group had been involved in urging the challenger Sullivan to run.
Sullivan called sharing a name with the Alaska's incumbent U.S. senator “a matter of fate” and said he had done nothing wrong.
“I have every right to run for whatever office I'm qualified for, and I’m qualified for this office,” the challenger said, adding: “I think I’m doing what most Americans would think would be a patriotic thing to do when you’re unsatisfied with the status quo. You stand up and say, I’m going to fight for things I believe that are going to make my community better.”
Ballots in prior years in Alaska have not identified the incumbent, but the Alaska Division of Elections’ current candidate list online does. It also distinguishes the candidates using a middle initial — Dan S. Sullivan for the senator and Dan J. Sullivan for the challenger.
Alaska has open primaries in which the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the ranked choice general election in November. Sen. Sullivan's campaign worries having two Dan Sullivans on the ballot could confuse voters.
Sen. Sullivan's campaign, in a statement Monday, said, “Alaskans deserve a fair and honest election — not political games meant to manipulate the ballot and benefit Democrats.”
The challenger said he was registered with the limited government-leaning Alaskan Independence Party for decades, until the party's dissolution late last year. Election officials had said voters registered with the party could change their affiliation but if they did not, they'd be shown as “undeclared.” Sullivan said he then was listed as undeclared until filing to run for office, when he registered as Republican.
He said he was motivated in part by his late father, whom he described as a “true, compassionate, conservative Republican.” He said if he had to label himself, it would be “a pragmatic Republican centrist” — similar to Alaska's senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, but “with touches of a Rand Paul Republican in there.”
He said he grew up in the Chicago area but was drawn to Alaska and put down roots nearly 50 years ago in Petersburg. The fishing community of about 3,400 in southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest is known as “Little Norway” for its many residents with Scandinavian roots. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service before changing careers and becoming a teacher. He has since retired.
Like most communities in Alaska, Petersburg isn't connected to the state's main road system and is accessible only by air or water. Juneau, the nearest city, is about 45 minutes away by plane.
Petersburg sits on Mitkof Island, which is distinguished by mountains, thick stands of forest and boggy areas called muskeg. Sea lions hauled up on buoys and humpback whales and orcas are common sights off its shores.
Sullivan, who will turn 69 this weekend, passed on an interview request last Friday, he said, because the king salmon were running and he wanted to fish.
As far as his run for office, the challenger said he plans to do some fundraising and hopes to campaign in the state's larger cities, including Anchorage and Juneau, but he so far has no firm plans to do so and is working on the details.
He finds the current dustup over his Senate run — and the incumbent's reaction — a bit surprising.
“I guess my thought would be, ‘Dude, why don’t you just run your campaign?’ If you’ve got a strong record, run on your record. People will love you for it and you’ll be swept back into office,” he said Monday. “Why would he be concerned that a guy out of Petersburg is this huge threat?”
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, heads to a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
