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≡ MILAN CORTINA WINTER GAMES ≡
American figure skater Ilia Malinin lost what looked like a sure gold medal in the Olympic men’s Singles Free Skate due to an error-filled program that dropped him all the way to eighth place overall.
But his warm embrace of a shocked Olympic champion – Georgia’s Mikhail Shaidorov – following the announcement of the scores won him the International Fair Play Award for the Milan Cortina Games.
Malinin, 21, won over five other candidates, with the fan voting total surpassing that for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The 2026 award is especially important as it comes 62 years after the very first Fair Play Award, given to Italian bobsled legend Eugenio Monti. During the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games, he aided his direct rivals, the British Two-Man team with a replacement bolt that ultimately helped them win the Olympic gold, while Monti’s team ended up with the bronze.
Said Malinin:
“I am deeply humbled to receive this honour, especially given the incredible legacy of Eugenio Monti here in Italy. Congratulating Mikhail wasn’t about the results; it was about the shared journey we take as athletes. Knowing that fans worldwide connected with that moment means more to me than any medal.”
The men’s Free Skate was one of the great shockers of the Games. Shaidorov stood fifth after the Short Program at 92.94, more than 15 points behind Milanin, the leader at 108.16. In fact, Shaidorov was more than nine points out of the bronze-medal position.
Starting fifth from last, Shaidorov energized the crowd and claimed a lifetime best of 198.64 and shot into the lead with his all-time best score of 291.58. And then each of the remaining skaters had trouble. Finally, Malinin fell twice during his scaled-down routine and ranked only 15th in the Free Skate at 156.33 and missed the podium entirely at 264.49, in eighth place.
But rather than mope, he embraced the stunned Shaidorov, who was suddenly the Olympic champion.
International Committee for Fair Play President Sunil Sabharwal (USA) observed:
“The Milano Cortina 2026 Games have proved that the spirit of Eugenio Monti is more alive today than ever before. To see our global ‘fair play community’ engage in such record-breaking numbers – surpassing even the heights of Paris – shows that sportsmanship is a positive force to reckon with. Ilia’s gesture was the embodiment of ‘victory beyond the medal’, and we are honored to recognize him in the very mountains where this movement began over 60 years ago.”
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