Malinin fell twice in the men’s figure skating final at the Winter Olympics on Feb. 13

Ilia Malinin says he’ll learn from the “mistakes” he made at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The 21-year-old figure skater appeared on the Today show on Tuesday, Feb. 17 to discuss what he learned after a disappointing performance in the free skate final on Feb. 13. Malinin told hosts Hoda Kotb, Carson Daly and Craig Melvin he felt “really confident” going to into the day of the performance, but said, “Of course, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to.”

“But we can’t look at that now,” Malinin continued. “All I have to do is learn from my mistakes there and push to see how I can improve in the future.”

Ilia Malinin on Feb. 13, 2026 in Milan, Italy.Jamie Squire/Getty

The Quad God, as he is known by fans, was also asked about the pressure he felt going into the 2026 Games. “Yeah, honestly, it’s not a pleasant feeling. The most honest way to say it is just a lot of on you, so many eyes, so much attention, not only from people, or fans, media. It’s just so much and it really can get to you if you’re not ready to fully embrace it,” he said.

Malinin continued, “So I think that might be one of the mistakes I made going into that free skate was I was not ready to handle that to a full extent, so I think looking back at that now, I’ll be able to kind of understand how that feels so I’ll be able to take a full approach leading up to the next Games hopefully.”

After Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan won gold in the event on Feb. 13, Malinin congratulated his opponent, and fans took notice of his sportsmanship.

During his appearance on Today, Malinin said, “I watched him do his whole program while I was getting ready to perform and I was just so happy for him. He went out there with the Olympics at stake and he just really pushed out all of there and he did exactly what he needed to do and I’m just so proud of him.”

He added that “all of us figure skaters were out there supporting each other” as they continue “growing this sport” to new fans. Malinin said in the moment, he also “had to process what happened with me, but again, I was just super proud of him.”

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.