Malinin, Minion and Milan’s most emotional moment

From the astonishing to the emotional to the downright bizarre, the Olympic figure skating men’s short program on Tuesday night had it all.

But the star once again was the USA’s Ilia Malinin, who stormed to the top of the leaderboard with a stunning routine featuring a quad flip and quad lutz – two of the hardest techniques in the sport.

Although he did not quite land the quad axel which has earned him the nickname ‘Quad God’, it put him top of the short program with a score of 108.16.

And unlike in the team event, where he made errors and was somewhat style over substance, this was an ominously clean routine from the 21-year-old – and he even threw in a backflip for good measure.

Kagiyama is second on 103.07, while France’s Adam Siao Him Fa impressed with a score of 102.55. Daniel Grassl, the best hope for hosts Italy of another medal on the ice, sits fourth with 93.46.

But all eyes are on Malinin as he strives for individual Winter Olympic gold. He has not been beaten in competition for almost two and a half years.

And after recording more than 200 points in the team event free skate – the second half of the men’s event – which secured the USA team gold on Sunday, few would bet against him here.

He entered the rink ready for a fight, shadowboxing at the camera. And he brought the fight to his rivals.

It is impossible to imagine what American skater Maxim Naumov has been through in the last 12 months.

Just over a year ago, his parents – former world champion pairs skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova – were among 67 people killed in a plane crash in Washington DC. Of those on board the flight, 28 were athletes, coaches or parents connected to US figure skating.

Naumov said that his dream to make Team USA was one of the last things he spoke about with his parents before they were killed.

“They are my superheroes, my role models, and my biggest support system. I just wanted to make them proud here,” he told the BBC after his performance.

“My dad said: ‘Everything is practice until it is the Olympics’. I can’t describe to you in words how much I just felt what he said. Also, there are truly no words for being able to step up to the occasion, I just wish that I made them proud.”

He made it to the Games, and was second on the ice on Tuesday, dancing to Nocturne No. 20 by Frederic Chopin.

After a slight slip on his triple axel, Naumov regained composure and skated a technically solid routine.

As he finished, the 24-year-old looked to the sky on his knees with tears in his eyes as the arena erupted. With a huge smile, cameras captured him saying “thank you” – perhaps to those both inside the arena, and in another place.

And it was good enough for the judges, who awarded Naumov a season best of 85.65 points for the performance – enough for a spot in the top 24 and a place in the free skate on Friday.

As the scores came in, Naumov held up a picture of his late parents with him as a young child.

“I bring it everywhere that I go,” he said of the image, which showed him holding hands with his parents while stood next to an ice rink. “It is in my bag, so it is literally right here on my heart.

One of the most eye-catching stories in the build-up to the Games was that of Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate.

Throughout the 2025-26 season, Sabate has performed to songs from the Minions while wearing a yellow T-shirt and blue overalls, like the characters’ outfits.

However, at the Olympics it seemed as though Sabate, known for his flamboyant and unusual routines, would have to change his usual routine in the men’s singles because of a copyright issue.

After days of negotiations and online outcry, the issues were sorted and the Minion would skate.

But after all that, it went wrong almost immediately for Sabate as he tripped on his first element. The Universal fanfare, as done by Minions, had barely ended.

Ultimately there were too many technical errors, and a score of 69.80 was not enough to take him through as he finished in 25th place.