Olympic figure skating star Ilia Malinin - who went viral after performing a previously forbidden move - has left fans stunned after an error during his final routine cost him a medal.
The Team USA skater was widely tipped to be one of the biggest stars of the Winter Olympics, having entered as the reigning two-time world champion.
At just 21 years of age, the Virginia-born star is competing in his first Olympics in Cortina, and won gold in the seven-person team event last Sunday.
During that event, Malinin attempted and successfully landed a backflip - a move that had been banned by the International Skating Union for 47 years between 1977 and 2024 because it was deemed too dangerous.
Advert
Malinin, who has been described as a 'once-in-a-generation' skater by pundits, was the heavy favourite to win the men's free skiing event on Wednesday evening and secure his second gold medal of the Milano-Cortina Games.
The 21-year-old led the standings after the short program routine on Tuesday, meaning he was the last competitor to complete the free skating routine on Friday.
But to the shock of everybody inside the Forum di Milano, Malinin made several errors which cost him not just a chance at the gold medal, but a medal of any kind.
In the early stage of his routine, Malinin was unable to perform a fully-rotated quadruple Axel - a move that only he has successfully landed in competition in the entire history of figure skating.
He then lost his footing and fell while performing a quadruple lutz jump move later in the routine, before another slip while attempting a separate move.
Malinin managed to hold his footing on the previously forbidden backflip, which he has used regularly throughout the Olympics, but was left distraught at the end of a routine which he knew had cost him his second gold.
He walked off the ice to a standing ovation from the crowd, and although he appeared to realise that his chances had disappeared, the crowd were stunned into silence when it was announced that he had placed in eighth overall.
The gold medal instead went to Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov, who placed fifth in the short program standings but comfortably topped the table in free skating.
Malinin's Olympics are now over, as he is not entered into the pairs events which take place later this week.
He could be involved in the exhibition gala which takes place next Thursday but, as the name suggests, that is not a competitive event and no medals are on offer.
Immediately after it was confirmed that he had missed out on another gold medal, Malinin immediately walked over to Shaidorov and embraced him.
He told reporters: "I was not expecting that. I felt like, going into this competition, I was so ready. But I think maybe that was the reason - maybe I was too confident.
"I think it was definitely mental [that caused the issues]. Now, finally experiencing that Olympic atmosphere, it's crazy. It's not like any other competition.
"I'm so, so grateful that I was able to put the effort in to get here. Of course, it was not the skate that I wanted.
"The first thing that came in my mind [at the end] was, 'There's no way that's just happened'. I was preparing all season, I felt so confident. So to go out and have that happen, I have no words, honestly.
"I should take the stuff that I learned from here and use it to my knowledge to see what I can do in the future."
Topics: Olympics, United States
Ryan Smart