"Ilia Malinin beat Japanese rival Shun Sato in a head-to-head showdown at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday night, helping the U.S. defend its team figure skating gold medal by breaking a deadlock with Japan in the final session of the competition. The 21-year-old nicknamed the Quad God landed five quadruple jumps and scored 200.03 points for his free skate, atoning for his mediocre short program at least by his lofty standards one night earlier."
"Malinin opened with a big quad flip, opted for a safer triple axel over his quad, and overcome a couple of mistakes along the way to finish with aplomb. The son of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov ended with back-to-back combos, a quad toe-triple flip and a quad salchow-triple axel, leaving a crowd full of American and Japanese fans roaring in approval."
"Sato followed him with three quads in his program, but he could only manage 194.86 points, leaving the Japanese with a second straight silver medal in the team event. The U.S. ended up on 69 points while Japan finished with 68. Matteo Rizzo delivered one of the best free skates of his career as Italy was trying to hold onto the bronze medal, allowing the host nation to finish third with 60 points."
The U.S. defended its Olympic team figure skating gold after Ilia Malinin outskated Shun Sato in the final free skate. Malinin landed five quadruple jumps and scored 200.03 points, overcoming mistakes from an earlier short program. Sato produced three quads and a cleaner program but scored 194.86, leaving Japan with silver as the U.S. finished on 69 points to Japan's 68. Italy earned bronze largely on Matteo Rizzo's standout free skate, finishing with 60 points. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs free skate and Kaori Sakamoto won the women's free skate during the final session.
Read at www.eastbaytimes.com
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