Mikaela Shiffrin has fellow Team USA athlete Ilia Malinin’s back after they both failed to reach the 2026 Winter Olympics podium.
“The Olympics ask us to take a real risk on the world stage,” Shiffrin, 30, wrote to Malinin, 21, in an Instagram comment on Saturday, February 14. “One that requires courage and vulnerability to erroneous judgment and narratives built on a limited understanding of what the sport truly demands.”
She continued, “And it all matters in the story of becoming the best version of ourselves. We love deeply because we know loss. We feel the pain of defeat because we’ve tasted triumph.”
Shiffrin failed to medal during the women’s giant slalom on Saturday, one day after Malinin’s shocking 8th place finish.
Figure Skater Ilia Malinin Falls Twice in Shocking Upset at 2026 Olympics
“Heartbreak and victory live right next door,” Shiffrin concluded on Saturday. “Disappointment and gratitude often coexist. Ilia, we’ve got your back. Proud of you.”
Malinin, affectionately known as the “quad god” due to his impressive number of quadruple turns, had been the gold-medal favorite to win the men’s figure skating competition. Despite coming in first place in the short program, Malinin bobbled multiple elements and fell several times in his free skate, leaving him far from medal contention.
“I was not expecting that,” Malinin told NBC Sports on Friday, February 13, after the competition. “I felt so ready getting on that ice. Maybe I was too confident it was going to go well. Finally experiencing that Olympic atmosphere, it’s crazy. It’s really different. I blew it. There’s no way that just happened.”
Days before his individual event, Malinin helped lead Team USA to a gold-medal victory in the skating team event.
“Everyone sees me at competitions and I’m just so focused, I’m really in a different mindset where I’m pretty much as perfect as I can be,” Malinin exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the Games. “But in reality, I’m not perfect. I’ll have bad days, I’ll have good days. It’s really the thing that tells people, ‘Oh, he’s really human like the rest of us.’”
Having the “quad god” nickname certainly helps the skater get in the right headspace, too.
“Hearing the name Quad God, you just have to be ready,” he quipped to Us. “For me specifically, I like to set standards. I always like to push myself to the limit, or push myself to my own limits and really just try to see that progress.”
Behind-the-Scenes on Team USA’s Dramatic Journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics
According to Malinin, he was going for more than just medal glory at the Olympics.
“My perfect idea for success for the Olympics is to really bring back a huge majority of popularity in skating,” he told Us. “Just bring it back to its prime days where, decades ago, all arenas were sold out for anything related to skating. It was extremely popular. It was televised on every single channel. That’s something I really want to bring back. A lot of people will be watching the Olympics, so I think that’s where I can inform them about this idea.”
