Athletes for whom an Olympic gold medal is the highest achievement in their sport often try to whistle past the graveyard by saying they intend to treat the Games as just another competition.

Those who are favored to win a gold medal usually double down on that mantra.

Figure skater Ilia Malinin, who came to the 2026 Winter Olympics as the overwhelming favorite to win the men’s singles gold, found out the another-day-at-the-office approach stopped working once he got into the atmosphere of the five-ring circus for the first time.

“I didn’t expect it to be that much,” he said.

And that showed in his unremarkable two performances in the team event, when he skated less impressively than expected but well enough to help his teammates win gold by one point over Japan. He was second in the short program and a shaky first in the free skate, when he needed a win to keep Team USA atop the podium Sunday.

Lesson learned, as was evident in Tuesday’s individual short program, which Malinin soared to victory at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on the strength of the huge quadruple jumps that are what separate him from every other skater in the world.

“For this short program, I felt like I was a lot more comfortable,” he said.

That seemed clear when he nailed his opening jump, a quad flip, with total control and élan. Later in the program, his execution of a quad lutz–triple toe loop combination enthralled the judges so much they gave him the highest score ever (22.03) for a single short program element.

His 108.16 total score bettered that from the short program by 10.16 points. It also gave him a lead of 5.09 points over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama going into Friday’s free skate, where the chance to try as many as seven quads gives Malinin a huge advantage in base value points on rivals who plan three or four. He did a landmark seven clean quads in December’s Grand Prix Final.

“I just felt there was so much pressure,” Malinin said of making his Olympic debut in the team event. “In that team event short program, I was really overpowered by that environment.

“I got too excited, and it came back and bit me. So I really wanted to take things nice and slow this time, be calm, be relaxed.”