MILAN, ITALY
\nUS figure skating star Ilia Malinin was upstaged on his Olympic debut on Saturday as Japan\u2019s Yuma Kagiyama led the men\u2019s short programme in the team event to keep the pressure on defending champions the United States.
\nThe 21-year-old Malinin, a two-time world champion, was below his best in his medley from \u201cThe Lost Crown\u201d video game, scoring 10.67 points less than Kagiyama, the Olympic individual silver medallist from Beijing 2022.
\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty happy with what I did because that\u2019s only 50 percent of my full potential,\u201d said Malinin.\u201dMy team event was to focus on myself and how I feel just overall,\u201d he continued.\u201d
\nI wasn\u2019t expecting to go out here and win the competition that was not my goal here for the team event. \u201cI just felt excited to be here — come on, it\u2019s the Olympics!\u201d
\nMalinin, the self-styled \u2018Quad God\u2019, opened with a quad flip, but followed with a hesitant triple Axel and underrotated his quad Lutz.
\nAn acrobatic closing section featuring a backflip and a one-armed cartwheel did not impress the judges enough as he scored 98.00 — more than 12 points off the personal best he achieved at last year\u2019s worlds. \u201cI feel really happy,\u201d insisted the skater from Virginia.
\n\u201cI\u2019m so glad to be here, this Olympic experience was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me, so just being able to go out here is what I\u2019m just grateful for.\u201d
\nKagiyama, 22, hit two quadruple jumps in his vibrant crowd-pleasing routine to a remix of \u201cI Wish\u201d, which scored 108.67 points, slightly off his season\u2019s best. I always get good motivation from Ilia,\u201d said the Japanese skater.
\n\u201cHe is a good jumper who can do the quad, so I always think that I want to catch him, match his performance. \u201c\u201dMy score (108.67 points) was close to my best score (108.77), so I\u2019m satisfied with that. \u201cIt is also very important for me to compete for our team, so I am very happy that we are close to the USA. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel pressure and I didn\u2019t feel nervous because our team was cheering for me during the performance, so they gave me a lot of power.\u201d
\nBut Malinin was in a similar position at this season\u2019s Grand Prix final when he trailed Kagiyama, before sweeping aside his rivals in the free skating final. Later on Saturday, the USA\u2019s world champion ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates took to the arena to pull the defending champions further ahead after the free dance.
\nThe husband-and-wife team\u2019s Flamenco routine earned them their season\u2019s best score of 133.23 points, after they already led Friday\u2019s rhythm dance section. The USA have 44 points with Japan five points behind on 39. Hosts Italy are third on 37 followed by Canada (35) and Georgia (32). France, South Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland were eliminated.
\nThe pairs, men\u2019s and women\u2019s free skates take place on Sunday.The USA have won a medal in every team event since it was introduced in 2014. Japan took team silver four years ago in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MILAN, ITALY US figure skating star Ilia Malinin was upstaged on his Olympic debut on Saturday as Japan\u2019s Yuma Kagiyama led the men\u2019s short programme in the team event to keep the pressure on defending champions the United States. The 21-year-old Malinin, a two-time world champion, was below his best in his medley from \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-530319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n