American skater Ilia Malinin produced an outstanding performance to help the United States win Olympic team gold in figure skating on Sunday, holding off strong competition from Japan.
Known as the “Quad God”, Malinin topped the men’s free skating in Milan as Japan finished with silver and host nation Italy took bronze after three days of competition.
The 21-year-old landed five quadruple jumps in his routine, but did not attempt the quad axel, which would have been the first in Olympic competition. He scored 200.03 points, finishing ahead of Japan’s Shun Sato, who scored 194.86.
Earlier in the event, Japan had moved into the lead after an excellent women’s free skate from Kaori Sakamoto, following a personal best performance in the pairs event by Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
The United States were the defending champions, having been awarded the gold medal from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after Russian skater Kamila Valieva received a doping ban.
Russia had originally won the team event in Beijing but were pushed down to bronze after Valieva’s results were removed, with Japan taking silver.
