Ilia Malinin is the biggest story of the Winter Olympics for all of the wrong reasons as questionable ice conditions continue to plague the United States. The 21-year-old figure skating phenom best known as ‘Quad God’ fell off of the podium as the overwhelming favorite for individual gold.
Literally.
There is a recurring theme with both figure skating and short track speed skating at the Olympics and it continues to fly under the radar. The ice is not up to standard!
Short track speed skating and figure skating share the same venue.
To be completely honest, I am not acutely familiar with the logistical challenges of the Olympics or how the events were separated in the past. I do not know whether it is normal for two different sports to share the same arena but that is what is happening in Italy during the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Milano Ice Skating Arena (also referred to as the Mediolanum Forum) will host multiple events from Feb. 10 through end of day on Feb. 20. That includes the men’s and women’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m, as well as the 3000m relays, 5000m relays and the mixed team relay in short track speed skating. It also includes men’s singles, women’s singles, pair skating, ice dance, and the team event in figure skating.
The Milano Ice Skating Arena will host 17 different competitions over the course of 11 days, which requires the ice management team to build the ice up and shave the ice back down multiple times per day every single day. Speed skating typically happens in the morning on the same ice as figure skating at night. There is a constant changeover.
As a result, the ice is different every day. It may not look different but it feels different.
Ice conditions at the Olympics are problematic.
There seems to be a direct connection between the shared venue and the results. We first saw the issue during the short track speed skating competition earlier in the week.
Multiple skaters from different countries (two from the United States) wiped out during a race in the exact same corner of the arena. They hit a soft spot, caught an edge and crashed. All in the same spot.
Think of it as rollerskating in a parking lot. No matter how fast or in control you might be, a fresh tar spot will stop your momentum. The abrupt slowdown throws you backward. You might lose your balance.
The same goes for speed skating. Any little discrepancy in the ice can destroy your pace and send you into the wall. There were an abnormal number of crashes during the early going because of the ice.
Those issues also carried into the figure skating competition. Four different men took at least one fall during their individual routines. Some of them, like gold medal favorite Ilia Malinin, fell more than once. And all of the wrecks happened in the same general area.
The ice looks watery and soft.
It is also the exact same corner that caused problems for the speed skaters that caused problems for the figure skaters.
I am not a speed skater and I am not a figure skater so maybe I am wrong and maybe this is not as big of a deal as I think. However, it seems to me like the ice conditions are a huge problem at the shared arena.
These skaters — figure and speed — are falling on the same part of the ice and the ice looks to be soft. There is a common denominator here. Why are we not talking more about this?!