{"id":9521,"date":"2026-02-26T21:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=9521"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:42:44","slug":"are-we-sure-that-was-just-a-gala-when-alysa-liu-and-ilia-malinin-stepped-onto-the-ice-together-at-the-2026-winter-olympics-exhibition-it-was-supposed-to-be-light-playful-a-pressu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=9521","title":{"rendered":"\u201cARE WE SURE THAT WAS JUST A GALA?\u201d When Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin stepped onto the ice together at the 2026 Winter Olympics exhibition, it was supposed to be light. Playful. A pressure-free encore after medals had already been won and lost. Instead, it became the moment everyone is still replaying. From the first beat, their timing felt almost telepathic. They leapt in perfect sync, rotated with mirror-image sharpness, and hit their landings so cleanly it barely looked choreographed. Mid-program, they locked eyes \u2014 and the arena audibly reacted. Not a roar. A ripple. A stunned, collective wow. She had just completed a stunning gold-medal resurgence. He was skating through the sting of a painful Olympic misstep. Two completely different emotional arcs colliding on the same sheet of ice. Was it simply elite chemistry between two once-in-a-generation talents? Or something deeper, forged under the kind of pressure only they truly understand? There\u2019s a clip circulating everywhere. And once you watch it, you\u2019ll see why the night quietly belonged to them."},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin stepped onto the ice together at the 2026 Winter Olympics gala, it was supposed to be lighthearted. A celebration. A victory lap. Instead, it became the moment everyone couldn\u2019t stop replaying.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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MILAN, Feb 22 (Reuters) \u2013 Alysa Liu completed a remarkable career comeback to win the women\u2019s gold as her U.S. teammate Ilia Malinin endured a stunning collapse at an Olympic figure skating competition packed with surprises.<\/p>\n

Liu, who stepped away from the sport aged just 16 after the 2022 Beijing Olympics citing burnout, returned two years later physically stronger and creatively refreshed.<\/p>\n

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\"Alysa<\/a><\/p>\n

The Reuters Inside Track newsletter is your essential guide to the biggest events in global sport. Sign up here.<\/p>\n

The Northern California native sealed the title with an electrifying free skate featuring seven clean triple jumps, then pointed skyward as the sold-out crowd leapt to their feet.<\/p>\n

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\"Kh\u00f4ng<\/a><\/p>\n

Kaori Sakamoto was heartbroken to only manage silver in her last Games, but Japanese figure skating is in good hands with 17-year-old Ami Nakai, who bagged bronze, and 20-year-old Mone Chiba, who finished fourth, making strong Olympic debuts.<\/p>\n

MALININ\u2019S MISS<\/p>\n

Malinin\u2019s free skate unfolded in stark contrast to Liu\u2019s joyful celebration.<\/p>\n

A star-studded crowd came expecting an Olympic coronation for the two-times world champion, who has transformed the sport with his unparalleled aerial abilities, but it was not to be.<\/p>\n

\"Ilia<\/a><\/p>\n

Leading by a comfortable margin heading into the free skate, the trouble started when his planned quadruple Axel \u2013 a jump only he has ever landed in competition \u2013 turned into a single. Two falls followed, and Malinin dropped to eighth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI blew it,\u201d he said immediately after.<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan\u2019s Mikhail Shaidorov capitalised to take the men\u2019s title, appearing momentarily stunned as the final standings confirmed the upset.<\/p>\n

Malinin, 21, said mental fatigue played a role and noted he had received encouragement from American gymnast Simone Biles, who was in attendance for the free skate.<\/p>\n

Biles battled the \u201ctwisties\u201d after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 before returning to the top of her sport at the 2024 Paris Games, a redemptive arc Malinin will now look to mirror with the Winter Games in France coming up in four years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Malinin has handled the disappointment with poise \u2013 cheering on his teammates from the stands and delivering an emotional closing-gala performance Saturday night that doubled as a sharp commentary on life in the spotlight<\/p>\n

ICE DANCE STUNNER<\/p>\n

\"Alysa<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ice dance produced its own surprise, with new French pairing Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron defeating U.S. veterans and three-times world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates for gold.<\/p>\n

In pairs, Japan\u2019s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara produced the skate of their lives to come from behind and win the country\u2019s first Olympic gold in the discipline with a powerful, Gladiator-themed free skate.<\/p>\n

The 10 days of competition at the Milano Ice Skating Arena opened with Liu and Malinin helping the U.S. edge Japan to claim a second straight Olympic team gold medal.<\/p>\n

It ended with Malinin\u2019s gala performance, where his trademark backflip brought the crowd to their feet in an appreciation of his talent and what also seemed like an acknowledgement of the weight he had carried.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this gala has been so helpful to overcome the stress of everything that happened to me over the last week,\u201d he posted. \u201cGlad I am able to express myself in such a poetic way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin stepped onto the ice together at the 2026 Winter Olympics gala, it was supposed to be lighthearted. A celebration. A victory… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9521","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\/9521","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=9521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9523,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9521\/revisions\/9523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}