{"id":8122,"date":"2026-02-15T16:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=8122"},"modified":"2026-02-15T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T16:53:11","slug":"horrible-just-horrible-reston-watch-party-breaks-down-after-quad-gods-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=8122","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHorrible, Just Horrible\u201d \u2014 Reston Watch Party Breaks Down After Quad God\u2019s Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ilia Malinin\u2019s home rink reacts to his eighth place performance<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There was screaming, crying and hands covering eyes and mouths at the Winter Olympics watch party hosted by SkateQuest in Reston, Virginia, on Friday.<\/p>\n

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\"Horrible,<\/p>\n

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They were all in disbelief as they watched Fairfax-native Ilia Malinin\u2019s Olympic dreams crash to the ice from his home rink.<\/p>\n

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Malinin\u2019s eighth place showing in the Olympic free skate final seemed impossible to everyone in the room; and to most everyone else watching around the world, he was supposed to bring home the gold.<\/p>\n

There were so many people in attendance at the watch party that a movie screen had to be set up on one of the ice rinks.<\/p>\n

When you walk into SkateQuest, a giant image of the \u201cQuad God\u201d from his 2024 World Championship welcomes you into the building.<\/p>\n

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\"U.S.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Anthony Lamirata started working at SkateQuest as Zamboni driver 18 years ago, and is now the general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known (Malinin) since he was seven years old when he started skating here,\u201d Lamirata said. \u201cI just felt so bad for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what he would say to Malinin, Lamirata\u2019s voice cracked a bit: \u201cI\u2019d just give him a hug. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Desjardins, who said she\u2019s skated with Malinin from time to time, said he is a lovely person.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s wonderful to skate with. He\u2019s super kind to everyone here and it makes my heart break,\u201d Desjardins said.<\/p>\n

Desjardins pointed out that the public saw his four minute-long routine, but everyone at SkateQuest sees the hard work put in day after day, year after year since he was a little boy.<\/p>\n

One of the people sitting front row that looked physically pained by Friday afternoon\u2019s results was 17-year-old Lucius Kazanecki.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalist was trained by Malinin\u2018s parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cHorrible. Just horrible,\u201d Kazanecki said of the disappointing dual falls. \u201cNot what any of us expected at all. He\u2019s been thinking about this for years. \u2026 I feel horrible for him.\u201c<\/p>\n

Around the room, two teenage girls held up a sign as Malinin gave an interview, almost like they were trying to tell him everything was going to be OK.<\/p>\n

The handmade sign read, \u201cIlia. Keep calm and quad on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dakota Flood, a teenage figure skater, couldn\u2019t have agreed with that message more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so incredibly proud of him,\u201d Flood said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilia Malinin\u2019s home rink reacts to his eighth place performance There was screaming, crying and hands covering eyes and mouths at the Winter Olympics watch party hosted… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8124,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions\/8124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}