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“She Needed to Hear This” — Ilia Malinin Opens Up About Private Moment With Amber Glenn After Her Olympic Setback

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Ilia Malinin was one of the few people who could innately understand how Amber Glenn felt after her performance in the women’s short program.

Malinin, 21, was in the building when Glenn, 26, and her fellow “Blade Angels” Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito performed in the first night of the women’s individual figure skating competition on Tuesday, Feb. 17, which ended up being far from the skate Glenn had hoped for.

The first-time Olympian, who came in to the competition as the reigning U.S. national champion, popped her planned triple loop partway through her short program, invalidating the move and sinking her score. She moved through the rest of the program without her usual power, and skated off the ice in tears.

Amber Glenn after her short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Xue Yuge/Xinhua via Getty

It was a night Malinin could relate to, coming just four days after he similarly missed planned elements in his free skate during the men’s figure skating final on Friday and left the ice struggling to hold back tears. He tells PEOPLE in an interview on Wednesday, Feb. 18 that he talked to Glenn soon after her performance.

“I’ve told her that, you know, this is something that we all go through,” he says. “It’s, you know, it’s not always a pleasant feeling, but it’s something that we need to embrace and we have to move on from no matter what, because no matter what happens, we always have to get up and go do it again.”

Amber Glenn embraces Ilia Malinin at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Tim Clayton/Getty

Malinin has been there for Glenn the same way she and their fellow Team USA skaters were there for him this past weekend in the aftermath of his eighth-place finish, he says.

“So many different athletes, you know, friends, teammates, even just randoms too. They’re all there for me,” he says. “And even people outside from the village. Just so much love, so much support and just such an honor.”

Glenn will perform her free skate in the final night of the women’s figure skating competition Thursday night, and regardless of what happens, both she and Malinin are still going home winners, having taken gold in the team event on Feb. 8. Malinin tells PEOPLE, though, that he gained more in defeat.

“I think honestly, you learn more from losing than you do winning, so I think I’m definitely gonna be able to learn a lot from this so I can come back better and stronger and really just know what I was up against,” he says. “It’s one thing to experience the Olympics for the first time, but it’s another to go again and know what’s gonna happen and really know how to prepare yourself better.”

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.

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In Minnesota alone, more than 100 refugees were reportedly arrested in recent weeks before a federal judge stepped in to halt detentions and order releases. A broader court fight is looming — one that could reshape how refugees are treated nationwide. With refugee admissions already slashed and new reviews underway, thousands could be affected. They came to the U.S. legally, fleeing persecution. Now many are asking: after surviving everything else… are they about to face detention here?

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Colbert says network lawyers pressured him not to air it. CBS says that’s not true. Meanwhile, the political backdrop is anything but quiet — from corporate mergers to renewed “equal time” scrutiny from the FCC. And here’s the twist: Talarico’s campaign reportedly raised $2.5 million in the fallout. A segment that never aired on television just became one of the most-watched political interviews online. So what was said that sparked 85 million views — and a network standoff?

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A masked man. A single glove. And now — DNA that could unmask a kidnapper. Three weeks after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, investigators are turning to cutting-edge genetic genealogy in a high-stakes effort to identify a suspect. DNA recovered near the scene didn’t match anything in the FBI’s CODIS database. But authorities believe they may have found genetic material that belongs to the person who took her. If that’s true, experts say it’s only a matter of time. The same investigative technique helped catch the Golden State Killer and Bryan Kohberger. Now it could expose whoever was caught on camera outside Guthrie’s home — armed, masked, wearing a distinctive Ozark Trail backpack. More than 19,000 tips have poured in. A reward exceeding $200,000 is on the table. Federal, state, and local agencies are combing through partial DNA, security footage, credit card trails, even backpack sales across Arizona. And the sheriff has a warning: if you’re responsible, you should be worried. Because this case isn’t cold. And the science may be closing in.

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Meanwhile, investigators are chasing DNA that doesn’t match, analyzing biological evidence still in the lab, probing recent gun purchases, and even scanning for signals from Guthrie’s pacemaker, which mysteriously disconnected from her phone hours before she was reported missing. Gloves with unknown DNA found miles away. Extra security cameras still being processed. A possible second person involved. Someone knows what happened that night. And authorities believe this case is far from random.

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