The Quad God’s Olympic Mortality

Finally competing in his first Winter Olympics after dominating the men’s figure skating circuit for years, the 21-year-old American Ilia Malinin was supposed to leave everyone speechless. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what he did. On Friday the 13th, the reigning back-to-back world champion known as the “Quad God” was the final athlete to take the ice for the men’s free skate. He led the field after the short program and was overwhelmingly expected to win the gold medal. What viewers hoped for was a few minutes of seeing heaven. What Malinin delivered was a front-row seat to a guy going through hell.