When Ilia Malinin stepped off the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena without a medal, the disappointment was written plainly across his face.
For Simone Biles, watching from the stands, the moment felt painfully familiar.
Malinin, the reigning world champion, placed outside the podium in the men’s figure skating final last Friday at the Milano Ice Skating Arena after mistakes in his free skate derailed his medal chances. He entered the competition widely viewed as a gold-medal contender, making the result one of the most surprising outcomes of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Biles understood immediately what that kind of moment can cost. The seven-time Olympic gold medalist in artistic gymnastics said she was immediately concerned about how the result might affect Malinin.
“I was really worried about how his mental health was going to be,” Biles told Olympics.com on Tuesday. “When you’re expected to skate a performance of your lifetime and you don’t deliver, I worry how that affects his mental and how the world is going to view that.”
“I’ve been through that firsthand,” she added. “So I really went into protection mode.”
A Favorite Meets the Olympic Margin for Error
GettyIlia Malinin fell on the ice during the men’s free skate at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina
Malinin arrived in Italy as one of the most scrutinized athletes of the Winter Games. At just 21, he had already reshaped modern figure skating with his technical ambition and consistency, helping the United States win gold in the team event earlier in the Olympics.
But the individual competition offered no margin for reputation.
After keeping himself in contention through the short program, Malinin struggled in the free skate, where multiple mistakes compounded under pressure. Missed landings and disrupted rhythm dropped his technical score and pushed him down the standings, removing him from podium contention before the final skaters took the ice.
It was a stark reminder of the Olympics’ unforgiving nature: even the most dominant athletes can see years of momentum undone in four minutes.
Why Biles Reached Out Immediately
For Biles, the moment stirred memories of her own Olympic reckoning.
At the Tokyo Games, she arrived as the most decorated gymnast in the world and the face of Team USA. What followed — her battle with the “twisties” and decision to step away — redefined conversations about athlete health and pressure on the world’s biggest stage.
Though she would later return to competition and reclaim gold, Biles said the recovery was neither instant nor easy.
“I think people have a misconception that I just woke up one day and everything was all fine,” she told Olympics.com. “But it was a process of a couple of years.”
Those experiences shaped how she reacted to Malinin’s disappointment. Shortly after his event, Biles said she sent him a message offering perspective and reassurance beyond the result.
“I did a couple bullet points and just sent it to him right away so he knew that he had support in a different aspect,” she said. “It was really heartbreaking.”
A Conversation About Validation, Not Technique
When the two later met in Milan, Biles said her goal was simple: to help Malinin feel seen and understood in a moment when the world was already judging the outcome.
“Just for someone to validate his feelings and to know we’ve gone through the same things,” she said. “But you can still come out on top.”
As she described emotions she believed Malinin might be experiencing — frustration, doubt, and the sudden weight of silence after expectations collapse — his response confirmed her instincts.
“While I was telling him some of what I thought he might be going through, he was like, ‘Exactly this,’” Biles said. “‘You finally just said it.’”
For Biles, that recognition matters as much as medals.
“Because I think it’s hard to say it out loud and to admit it,” she said. “But seeing someone who’s gone through the same thing and validating that — that’s how you start to process it.”
Beyond the Results Sheet
Malinin leaves Milan without the individual medal many expected, but not without perspective. He remains one of the sport’s defining talents, and his Olympic journey includes a team gold medal and experience under the highest level of scrutiny that figure skating offers.
Biles believes those moments, difficult as they are, often shape athletes more than victories do.
The Olympics, she has learned, do not always reward talent on schedule and they do not always allow space for disappointment.
Sometimes, that space comes from another athlete who understands exactly what it costs to chase perfection under the brightest lights in sport.
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