‘Definitely an upset’: Watch the men’s figure skating team event end with a surprising finish

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There were backflips, there were skilled jumps, but Ilia Malinin’s first Olympic figure skating performance didn’t go exactly as planned.

After years of winning scores and performances, his first skate on Olympic ice ended with a shocking upset at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Reigning silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama landed a pair of near-perfect quads, one in combination with a triple toe loop, and scored 108.67 points for his short program Saturday night. That topped Malinin for the segment — he was second with 98.00 — and gave his Japanese team 33 points, just one behind the defending champion U.S. at the midway juncture of the competition.

Italy was third with 28 points, Canada fourth with 27 and Georgia fifth with 25.

2022 Olympic figure skater Mariah Bell explains just how incredible U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin is on the ice.

The 21-year-old wunderkind Malinin had planned the quad axel — the 4 1/2-revolution jump only he has ever landed in competition — but only did a shaky version of the triple. He had started with a brilliant opening quad flip and finished his program with a quad lutz-triple toe loop, getting bonus points for the combination because it came in the second half of the program.

He also successfully landed a backflip — becoming the first to do so legally at the Olympics since 1976.

In the end, his performance had the crowd roaring and on their feet.

Watch below: