The Japan Times - Braathen wins unique Winter Olympic gold for Brazil, Malinin seeks answers

The Norwegian-born Braathen was fastest in the first leg in snowy Bormio and kept his cool in the second to win with an aggregate time of 2min 25.00sec.

Only Switzerland's Marco Odermatt came anywhere near him in the first run, claiming his second silver medal of the Milan-Cortina Games by finishing 0.58sec behind overall.

Odermatt's Swiss teammate Loic Meillard rounded out the podium.

Braathen, 25, had switched allegiance to his mother's homeland after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation.

His victory broke the mould in more ways than one -- in the testosterone-filled world of alpine skiing, he is a regular at fashion weeks in Paris and Milan and has launched his own skincare range, leading to accusations he is "too feminine in a very masculine sport".

"I just wanted to ski as the person I am. I know I can be the best in the world, if I do that to the greatest extent," he said after clinching gold, the first ever Winter Olympic medal of any colour for an athlete representing Latin America.

- Malinin stunned -

Malinin came into these Olympics as the hottest of favourites.

But on a dramatic Friday night, the skater who had not lost for more than two years suffered a nightmare on the ice.

Heading into the free skate section in the lead, Malinin capitulated, fluffing his signature quad axel jump and falling twice to the ice to plummet to eighth spot overall.

Stunned, he held his head in his hands after his disastrous performance in front of a packed crowd at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, who witnessed the biggest upset of this Games so far.

The American said his failure was "definitely mental".

"Maybe I was too confident it was going to go well. Honestly, it happened. I can't process what just happened," he said.

"My life has been through a lot of ups and downs, and just before getting into my starting pose, I just felt all of those experiences, memories, thoughts really just rush in, and it just felt so overwhelming. I didn't really know how to handle it in that moment.

"So I think all of this pressure, all of the media and just being the Olympic gold hopeful was just a lot, too much to handle."

Mikhail Shaidorov, leading the way with an overall score of 291.58 points, could barely believe his eyes when he saw Malinin's score of 264.49.

The 21-year-old Kazakh, who no-one had predicted would win gold, watched not just Malinin but his Japanese rivals make error after error and rode to an unlikely title.

"When I was watching Ilia skating I was surprised because usually he's exceptional and I don't know what exactly happened," Shaidorov said.

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, who had been second after the short programme, also fell during his routine but ended with the silver medal, equalling his performance from the 2022 Beijing Games.

His compatriot Shun Sato took the bronze.

Malinin's only consolation was a gold medal from the team event earlier in the Games and the knowledge that, at 21, he will have another chance at future Olympics.

Meanwhile Olympics organisers made a Valentine's Day revelation that athletes have snapped up 10,000 of the free condoms available at the various Olympic accommodation 'clusters' in these Games.

"10,000 have been used, for 2,800 athletes. Go figure, as they say," International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said with a smile at the daily media briefing.

T.Kobayashi--JT