MILAN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mikhail Shaidorov captured Olympic men's single figure skating gold at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, producing a landmark victory for Kazakhstan on a night when traditional powers faltered. For China, in the midst of a difficult rebuilding phase, a hard-earned fifth place in pairs was all they could hold on to.
The 21-year-old Shaidorov outclassed strong favorite Ilia Malinin of the United States in a dramatic free skate, delivering a technical masterclass with five clean quadruple jumps to secure Kazakhstan's first Olympic figure skating gold medal.
Malinin failed on his quad Axel attempt, fell twice and struggled to regain his composure, and finished only 15th in the free skate and eighth overall.
"The pressure of the Olympics really gets to you," he said. "People say there's an 'Olympic curse', that the Olympic gold medal favorite is always going to skate badly at the Olympics. So that's what happens."
After the free skate, Malinin walked directly to Shaidorov in the "kiss and cry" area to embrace him, telling the Kazakh, "You deserve it."
"I was rooting for Ilia, and he started to make mistakes," the winner said. "I was really surprised because he rarely makes mistakes, and so I still tried to support him.
"My goal was just to show everything I can do, show a beautiful performance and show how much figure skating has grown in Kazakhstan. And then when I won the gold medal, I couldn't believe it."
Yuma Kagiyama of Japan claimed his second consecutive men's singles Olympic silver, with compatriot Shun Sato taking bronze. Malinin, despite missing the podium in the individual event, had earlier helped the United States to gold in the figure skating team event, where Japan took silver and Italy bronze.
In the women's singles, Alysa Liu of the United States rose from third after the short program to become Olympic champion.
Competing at her third and final Games, Beijing 2022 bronze medallist Sakamoto Kaori of Japan took silver, while teammate Nakai Ami clinched bronze.
Japan struck again in pairs, where Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara surged from fifth after the short program to win the country's first Olympic pairs gold with a world-record free skate of 158.13 points. Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava captured Georgia's first-ever Olympic Winter Games medal with silver. Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin of Germany, who led after the short program, took the bronze.
In ice dance, Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Guillaume Cizeron of France took gold, having teamed up less than a year ago. They edged the favorites, American duo Madison Chock/Evan Bates, by 1.43 points, with Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier of Canada earning bronze. Cizeron became the first ice dancer to win Olympic gold with two different partners, adding to his Beijing 2022 title with Gabriella Papadakis.
For China, Milan-Cortina 2026 underlined a difficult transition period. After winning figure skating medals at almost every Winter Games since Chen Lu's historic women's bronze at Lillehammer 1994, China left Milan without a podium finish. Its best result came in pairs, where Beijing 2022 Olympic champions Sui Wenjing/Han Cong returned from a three-year absence to finish fifth.
The comeback of Sui/Han was the central storyline for the Chinese camp. Away from international ice since winning gold on home ice in 2022, they were persuaded to return late in the cycle and only resumed international competition in October.
"Two or three years they hadn't trained systematically," said Chinese Figure Skating Association president Ren Hongguo. "They only really resumed full training in April, and Sui Wenjing still had recurring injuries. Their recovery time was very short."
"With this pair's ability, under a normal preparation cycle, winning a medal would not be a problem," Ren said.
Given the rushed preparation and injury issues, Sui/Han's fifth place was seen within the team as a form of "holding the line" for a program under pressure.
"With such rushed preparation and injuries on top of that, this fifth place is basically the best result based on the current foundations," Ren said.
"With the foundation of the last two years and the injury situation, they basically pushed themselves to the limit," he added. "There is regret, but it is not a failure."
China's other results showed the gap that still remains from the world's best. Veteran Jin Boyang, once a world bronze medalist and fourth-place finisher at PyeongChang 2018, returned to the Olympic ice in the men's event but did not challenge for the top ranks, finishing 17th overall.
In ice dance, long-time national leaders Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu finished 19th, while in women's singles, Olympic debutant Zhang Ruiyang also placed 19th.
