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American skating star Ilia Malinin skated to a five-point lead in a spectacular Short Program at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Tuesday. The men gave it their all and the enthusiastic audience at the Milan Ice Skating Arena witnessed not only quadruple jumps, but superb programs, spins and footwork.

Malinin ahead of Kagiyama and Siao Him Fa

Two-time ISU World Champion Malinin, pictured above*, leads ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa. But the gap at the top is narrow, and a lot can happen in the Free Skating on Friday. 

Malinin stepped it up in the Short Program compared to the Team Event last Saturday, looking more settled. He hit a quad flip, triple Axel, quad Lutz-triple toe in his intense performance to “The Lost Crown” to score 108.16 points. The crowd, of course, especially loved his backflip and roared when he landed it.

The crowd in Milan were delighted to see Ilia Malinin land his backflip on Tuesday © Getty Images

“[In the Team Event] I would want to call it Olympic pressure,” Malinin said. “Going out there the first time, hitting that Olympic ice and feeling the atmosphere, it was like … I didn't expect it to be so much. It took me a little while to understand what really happened. But now that I understand it, I took a different approach today. Really just take things nice and calm, nice and slow, just relaxed, and really just push the autopilot button and just let it cruise.” 

Malinin remains the top favorite and he knows he is under the spotlight. 

“Being the favorite is one thing, but actually getting it done and doing it under pressure and really just having the skate of your life to earn that medal is another thing,” Malinin added. “I don't want to get too ahead of myself and say that it's guaranteed that I'm getting that gold medal, because of course I still have to put in that work for that long program. [I want to] really just take everything, give myself a nice process, a nice schedule and what I want to do and how to prepare myself the best for that free program.”

Kagiyama stumbles but stays in contention

Kagiyama started well into his routine to “I Wish” with a quad toe-triple toe and quad Salchow but then stumbled on the triple Axel. Nevertheless, the 2022 Olympic silver medalist earned 103.07 points to remain close to Malinin. 

Yuma Kagiyama is close to Ilia Malinin at the top of the leaderboard © Getty Images

"Honestly, short program scores don't mean much,” Kagiyama said. “In my case, no matter how high or low they are, they're not a reference at all for the free skate. So to begin with, I just tried to do everything I could at my best.

“I knew even before the results were announced how things would be judged, so I had made a solid plan for how to recover and step things up,” he continued. “Not everything went smoothly, but I've been able to stick to my own routine, so I feel that I really skated with 100% effort today."

Siao Him Fa’s plan paid off

Siao Him Fa had not competed since the French National Championships in December as he needed time to prepare calmly, and his plan paid off. The “Vitruvian Man” produced a quad toe-triple toe, quad Salchow and triple Axel in his routine dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci to score a personal best of 102.55 points. 

“I had a long time to prepare and I have trained really hard,” Siao Him Fa said. “I’ve never trained so well before and I never was so ready for a competition. I skipped the European Championships because it was really necessary for me to have this real time of training to redevelop my physical and mental form and to recover.

“This performance today gives me a lot of confidence but the Free Skating is a new event. I will stay focused and prepare the best I can. Tomorrow, I start from zero.”

Grassl, Shaidorov and Cha impress

To the excitement of the home crowd, Daniel Grassl (ITA) landed a quad Lutz-triple toe and a rare quad loop (slightly under-rotated) to finish fourth on 93.46 points. Grassl said he felt inspired by his bronze medal in the Team Event. “That helped me a lot for this competition today because today I didn’t feel any pressure,” he noted. “Before going out, I looked at my medal and I was so happy.”

Daniel Grassl (ITA) entertained the home fans in Milan on Tuesday © Getty Images

The 2025 ISU World silver medalist, Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ), is not far behind in fifth place on 92.94 points with an excellent performance to “Dune”. 

“It was nerve-wracking as this is not the World Championship but the Olympic Games,” Shaidorov admitted. “I was able to overcome the nerves and to enjoy to skate, give it my best and do what I can do.”

2026 Four Continents silver medalist Junhwan Cha (KOR) rounds up the top six (92.72 points). 

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