Malinin upstaged as Japan keep pressure on USA in skating team event

MILAN (Italy) (AFP) – US figure skating star Ilia Malinin was upstaged on his Olympic debut on Saturday as Japan's Yuma Kagiyama led the men's short programme in the team event to keep the pressure on defending champions the United States.

The 21-year-old Malinin, a two-time world champion, was below his best in his medley from "The Lost Crown" video game, scoring 10.67 points less than Kagiyama, the Olympic individual silver medallist from Beijing 2022.

"I'm pretty happy with what I did because that's only 50 percent of my full potential," said Malinin.

"My team event was to focus on myself and how I feel just overall," he continued.

"I wasn't expecting to go out here and win the competition, that was not my goal here for the team event.

"I just felt excited to be here – come on, it's the Olympics!"

Malinin, the self-styled 'Quad God', opened with a quad flip, but followed with a hesitant triple Axel and underrotated his quad Lutz.

An acrobatic closing section featuring a backflip and a one-armed cartwheel did not impress the judges enough as he scored 98.00 – more than 12 points off the personal best he achieved at last year's worlds.

"I feel really happy," insisted the skater from Virginia.

"I'm so glad to be here, this Olympic experience was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me, so just being able to go out here is what I'm just grateful for."

'Good motivation'

Japanese figure skating star Yuma Kagiyama (front row, C) cheers on Japan with his teammates in the Olympic figure skating team event in Milan.

Kagiyama, 22, hit two quadruple jumps in his vibrant crowd-pleasing routine to a remix of "I Wish", which scored 108.67 points, slightly off his season's best.

"I always get good motivation from Ilia," said the Japanese skater.

"He is a good jumper who can do the quad, so I always think that I want to catch him, match his performance."

"My score (108.67 points) was close to my best score (108.77), so I'm satisfied with that.

"It is also very important for me to compete for our team, so I am very happy that we are close to the USA.

"I didn't feel pressure and I didn't feel nervous because our team was cheering for me during the performance, so they gave me a lot of power."

But Malinin was in a similar position at this season's Grand Prix final when he trailed Kagiyama, before sweeping aside his rivals in the free skating final.

Later on Saturday, the USA's world champion ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates took to the arena to pull the defending champions further ahead after the free dance.

The husband-and-wife team's Flamenco routine earned them their season's best score of 133.23 points, after they already led Friday's rhythm dance section.

American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates led all the way in the Winter Olympics team competition in Milan.

The USA have 44 points with Japan five points behind on 39. Hosts Italy are third on 37 followed by Canada (35) and Georgia (32).

France, South Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland were eliminated.

The pairs, men's and women's free skates take place on Sunday.

The USA have won a medal in every team event since it was introduced in 2014.

Japan took team silver four years ago in Beijing.