USA's Ilia Malinin leads men's singles after commanding short program

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- The United States' Ilia Malinin delivered a near-perfect short program Tuesday night in Milano, putting the two-time world champion firmly atop the men's singles standings heading into Friday's free skate.

The "Quad God" pulled off one of the most difficult short programs in the field at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, landing a quad flip, a triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination to the dramatic and cinematic The Lost Crown.

The 21-year-old's routine also included a backflip, permitted in competition for the first time in 2024. Though it did not score, it set the tone. He became the first skater to perform a backflip legally at the Olympics during the team event short program.

The skate netted a score of 108.16, putting him nearly five points ahead of Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, who finished second with a 103.07, and France's Adam Siao Him Fa, who was sitting in third with 102.55.

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The United States' Andrew Torgashev was in eighth place after the short program with a score of 88.94 and American Maxim Naumov was in 14th with 85.65 points. twenty-four men skated Tuesday night.

The skate was Malinin's third of this Olympics, having won his first Olympic gold medal on Sunday in the men's team event.

After Tuesday's performance, Malinin told reporters that he felt "really comfortable" compared to his two previous skates.

"I definitely wanted to take a different approach as opposed to the team event, where I think I just went out there and feeling that Olympic atmosphere really just blew me away and I got, maybe, a little too excited," he said.

"This time, I wanted to be really calm, really nice approach, let it on autopilot."

The free skate portion of men's singles is scheduled for Friday.