MILAN — Ilia Malinin backflipped, cartwheeled and swaggered his way into the men’s singles lead after the short program on Tuesday night.
Malinin, the face of these Olympic Games, finished with a 108.16 for first in the short program, beating Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (103.07) just a few days after Kagiyama bettered him in the short program during the team event.
This portion of the competition is considered Malinin’s weaker portion. He did not attempt the quad axel for which he is known, instead settling for a triple axel, along with two quads, a flip and a lutz.
The Quad God also broke out his signature backflip over the Milan Cortina Olympics logo at center ice.
The free skate, where Malinin is overwhelmingly the best in the world, is on Friday night.
Something would have to go terribly wrong for Malinin not to have a gold medal around his neck then.