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By Anne Erickson
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The 2026 Winter Olympics are in full swing, and on Friday, Feb. 13, the world watched, including figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, as Team USA figure skater Ilia Malinin attempted to win his first men's individual gold medal.
The "Quad God" took the ice with confidence, but he fell in his main event and didn't medal. Malinin was expected to bring home the gold medal and ended up getting eighth place, and that showing has people in the Olympic community and throughout the world talking.
But, the good news is that before the competition, Malinin had already earned has a gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics as part of Team USA's men's figure skating team, so he's already an Olympic gold medal winner. At that event, he also became the first figure skater in decades at the Olympics to complete a backflip.
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After the incident, Kerrigan opened up about both Malinin and fellow figure skater Maxim Naumov's performances.
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Regarding Malinin, Kerrigan said after his fall, according to a report from Audacy, "Even with mistakes, there's unbelievably magical moments on the ice. You see something that's rough, but you will get something else and you're like, 'Wow, that's incredible what they're doing on the ice.'"
More sports news: Team USA Under Fire After Olympic Decision in Ilia Malinin’s Historic Loss
Kerrigan also said that falling in competition can be useful and provide motivation and inspiration for upcoming skaters, stating, "To also see them not be perfect is a great lesson that you don't give up, that you keep on trying, that you move forward. That's skating. We fall down all the time, and you get back up and you keep on going."
More sports news: Ilia Malinin Reveals Exactly What Happened Moments Before His Olympic Collapse
As for Naumov's performance, after his fall, she said, "He's still a beautiful skater. He's emotional out there. He makes you 'feel,' which, friends of mine who are judges say, 'I want you to make me feel,' and he does that."
She added, "In our sport, you have to put more than just the technical things out there... He does that, he skates from his heart."
Nancy Kerrigan won two Olympic medals in figure skating, the first being a bronze in 1992 and the second being a silver in 1994, according to Olympics research.
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