Ilia Malinin beat Japanese rival Shun Sato in a head-to-head showdown at the Milan Cortina Olympics, helping the U.S. defend its team figure skating gold medal.

US wunderkind Ilia Malinin leads after the men's figure skating short routine on Tuesday, the first leg of the competition, but failed to break 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen's record. Malinin earned 108.

American Ilia Malinin performed a near-perfect short program filled with high-flying jumps and a jaw-dropping backflip to take a big lead in men's figure skating at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

It’s reckless and exhilarating, daring and unnecessary, thrilling and chaotic all at once. The mid-routine backflip is one of skating’s most controversial moves, and Ilia Malinin — for the third time this Olympic Games — broke it out during his short program on Tuesday night,

U.S. two-time world champion Ilia Malinin stormed to 1st place in the men's figure skating event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

US figure skating star Ilia Malinin warned he was "on autopilot" after seizing the lead after the men's singles short programme at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday to stay on track for a second gold in his debut Games.

Ilia Malinin backflipped, cartwheeled and swaggered his way into the men’s singles lead after the short program on Tuesday night. Malinin, the face of these Olympic Games, finished with a 108.16 for first in the short program,

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows MILAN, ITALY - FEBRUARY 07: Ilia Malinin of Team United States competes in Men's Single Skating - Short Program on day one of t