Google released a new holiday logo on Monday, February 9, showing off the figure skating gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics. In head-to-head action Sunday night, American Ilia Malinin led the U.S. to gold as she defeated Japanese rival Shun Sato to clinch gold for her country at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
After three days of intense competition, Japan took silver, while host country Italy claimed bronze. Speaking about the landmark victory, Malinin said: “We came here to do one job and we did it,” AFP reported. After winning the gold title at his first Olympics, the 21-year-old is gearing up for the individual event.
Describing what was going through his mind moments before the US win, he said: “I came in and said I’m the deciding factor, I just have to go out and test the ice again to see what it’s like and prepare for the individual race.
The Americans and Japanese moved up the scoreboard, with the United States finishing with 69 points and Japan scoring 68. For the first time in the team competition, Italy clinched a medal and finished with a score of 60 as Matteo Rizzo produced one of the best free skates of his career.
He praised the team’s support and energy during the wild clash, adding: “I knew it was going to be a tie… and it went exactly the way I wanted it to. I’m very grateful.” In a thrilling figure skating competition, Malinin’s impressive performance featured five four jumps.
in head-to-head action Sunday night, he helped the U.S. defend its team gold medal in figure skating by breaking a deadlock with Japan in the final stretch of the competition.
Dubbed the “Quad God,” the 21-year-old landed five quadruple jumps and earned 200.03 points for his free skate, redeeming his average short program — at least by his lofty standards — a night earlier. Sato followed with three quads in his program, but could only manage 194.86 points, leaving the Japanese with their second consecutive team silver medal.
The USA finished with 69 points, while Japan finished with 68. Matteo Rizzo produced one of the best free skates of his career as Italy tried to hold on for the bronze medal, allowing the host nation to finish third with 60 points.
Georgia finished fourth with 56. It has still never won a medal in any sport at the Winter Games.
The USA had a five-point lead over Japan after two days of competition. However, the advantage was reduced to nil when world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs free skate and Kaori Sakamoto won the women’s free skate earlier on Sunday night.
Let the best in the business deliver for Americans.
Malinin started with a big flip on the quad, opted for a safer triple axel over his quad and overcame a few mistakes to finish calmly. The son of Olympic figure skaters Tatiana Malinin and Roman Skorniakov finished with back-to-back quad toe-triple flip and quad salchow-triple axel combos, leaving the crowd of American and Japanese fans roaring in approval.
Sato did everything he could to give Japan a chance.
From his opening quad lutz to his final triple lutz, the Japanese star was near perfect, producing a simpler but cleaner program than Malina’s before. He pumped his fist the moment the music ended, then had to wait to see if it was enough.