Olympic Pressure

There was no bigger favorite coming into the Milan Cortina Games than Ilia Malinin.  His gold medal was preordained.  Everybody else was just skating for silver.  Here's the thing about sports, though.  Nothing is preordained.  You need to go out there and perform.  If you want something, you're gonna have to go out and earn it.

As we saw, Malinin's gold medal in the men's event was very much NOT preordained.  He completely unraveled and didn't just miss out on the goal, he ended up off the podium completely!  Everyone was shocked by his eighth-place finish, including Malinin.  After he stepped off the ice and was waiting for the scores to confirm what he already knew, Malinin flat out said they should've sent him to Beijing four years ago and that wouldn't have happened if they had.  Then, in his interviews afterwards, he admitted that the Olympic pressure got to him.

Malinin's point about going to Beijing was a valid one.  Four years ago, all the pressure was on Nathan Chen.  He was THE man.  Malinin, who was just 17 at the time, would've been going just for the experience.  Experience that would've been valuable.  Because, come 2026, he was experiencing the Olympics for the first time while bearing the weight of massive expectations.  It's not the easiest position to be in, especially when you factor in everything else.

He will, of course, still be leaving Milan with a gold medal from the team event.  But even in the team event, he was shaky.  Malinin finished second in the short program, which was his first time ever stepping on Olympic ice.  He rebounded to win the free skate and clinch the gold medal for the American team, then won the short program in the men's event.  But it all unraveled in the free skate.  The moment got to him and he succumbed to the pressure.  In devastating fashion.

Olympic pressure is a very real thing.  Some athletes aren't fazed by it and even thrive on it.  For others, it's a heavy burden that's tough to overcome.  Especially when you consider the fact that if it doesn't happen, you don't get another chance until four years later, if you get one at all.  There's nothing like that anywhere else in sports.  It's part of what makes the Olympics so great and special.  It's also part of what can make them so cruel.

Ilia Malinin has won everything in sight.  He's revolutionized his sport with his quadruple jumps and the ease with which he performs them.  No one would argue that he isn't the best male figure skater in the world and one of the best of all-time.  And, yes, he's an Olympic gold medalist.  But it's not the Olympic gold medal he wanted and the world expected.

So, what happened in the free skate?  It sure seemed like it wasn't anything physical.  It was entirely mental.  He was in the lead, which he was supposed to be.  He knew he was four minutes away from his dream.  But he also had two days to think about it between the short program and free skate.  Clearly that got to his head.  Then, after he bailed out of his quad axel (which would've been insane), it was like he felt it slipping away and was scrambling.

Contrast that to the gold medalist, Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov.  He came into the Olympics with an outside shot at maybe making the podium and was in fifth place after the short program.  The pressure was completely off.  Shaidorov could go out there and just skate.  He didn't have to think about anything.  The result was the performance of his life, and it won him Olympic gold.

The Olympics are unlike anything else in sports.  And not just because they only happen once every four years.  It's everything that surrounds them.  It's not just your sport and the competitors you go against all the time.  You're staying in an Olympic Village with athletes from all different sports.  You've suddenly got the entire world's attention.  During the two weeks your sport is in the Olympic spotlight, you go from a relative unknown to all those who don't regularly follow your sport to a household name.  And suddenly there's media everywhere. 

Not to mention all the other distractions!  As much as you may want to just focus on your sport, it's practically impossible.  The "Olympic Experience" doesn't just refer to the competition.  It refers to all that other stuff, as well.  It's difficult to balance enjoying the experience and simply being at the Olympics with doing the job you're there to do.  Especially if it's your first time there (adding more fuel to the argument that Ilia Malinin should've been on the team in 2022).  Especially since you're not sure you'll ever go again.

Some athletes thrive in the Olympic spotlight.  There are plenty of examples of those who were built for the biggest stage.  For others, it's too much.  Unfortunately, you don't find out until you get there.  And, whatever happens, you have to wait four years until you get another shot at it.  When the pressure may be even greater.

Ilia Malinin isn't the only athlete who's succumbed to Olympic pressure.  Four years ago, the controversy surrounding Kamila Valiyeva dominated the first week of the Games.  In the women's free skate, it all came crashing down and she fell apart.  The circumstances are obviously completely different, but I couldn't help thinking about what happened to her while Malinin was having his Olympic meltdown.  It happens.  Sports aren't scripted.

We've seen the reverse, too.  Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in Sochi when she was an 18-year-old unknown with absolutely no pressure on her.  Then she won two medals in PyeongChang.  In Beijing, she was expected to be one of the stars of the Games and entered all six events.  She went home 0-for-6 with two DNFs in her two best events.  Shiffrin is also 0-for-Cortina so far.  Being the household name brought pressure and increased expectations that she so far hasn't lived up to.  And the more she doesn't get it done, the bigger the focus on those failures becomes.

In many ways, Olympians are superhuman.  They do things athletically the average person can't even fathom doing themselves.  So, when they have moments that remind us that they are, in fact, also human, it can be shocking.  But that's the Olympics and the pressure that comes with them.  You don't know how someone will handle it until the situation arises.  And then it might be too late.