PeterRS Posted 3 hours ago Author Posted 3 hours ago On 2/14/2026 at 9:17 AM, PeterRS said: Well, Malinin's problem is that he did not skate anything like that. In fact, his long programme was so bad I cannot remember any other skater who has skated a worse long programme. Although he had a generous lead of 5 points from the short programe, he took to the ice last and was aware that all of his nearest rivals had faltered at least once. The gold was his for the taking. Having now seen the full men's Final Programme, Malinin's breakdown is even harder to work out. I've also seen several interviews he gave in the months leading up to the Olympics. He seems a relatively humble individual. In each, he says clearly that his short-term goal is the individual Olympic Gold. As I've stated above, with a good lead from the Short Programme and his three nearest competitors each having fallen after one jump with their scores being lower as a result, he had absolutely no need to pack his Programme with the seven quad jumps he said he was determined to include. He was so far ahead in points he could - and to my thinking should - have quickly modified his programme before he took to the ice. He and his team could easiy have decided to convert some of these quads to much easier triple jumps. He would have lost points but would still have won quite easily. But his confidence (arrogance?) in determining to land all seven in competition overcame that simple desire just to win the Gold. Quote
