'I Blew It,' Ilia Malinin Reacts to Stunning 8th Place Finish in Olympics Figure Skating Final

American figure skater Ilia Malinin spoke with NBC shortly after placing eighth during a men's singles free skating final in which he was favored to win gold.

"I was not expecting that. Honestly, I can't process what just happened," Malinin said. "I blew it."

Malinin, 21, went into the event with a five-point lead after his short program but fell twice during Friday's free skate.

"It's a lot to handle, and the pressure of the Olympics is, it's really something different," Malinin told reporters after the event. "I think that not a lot of people will understand that. They'll only understand that from the inside.

"Going into this competition, especially today. I felt really confident, really good. I had a really good practice today, went really well. I felt like I was ready, and all I needed to do was come out here and just trust everything to happen. But, it really just went by so fast. I did not have time to process what really went down."

Malinin mentioned the "pressure" of being the heavy favorite to win the event when speaking about his mental state just before skating.

"Mentally, it was a weird feeling going into the program," Malinin said. "I just had so many thoughts and memories flood right before I got into my starting pose. It almost, I think it maybe overwhelmed me a little bit.

"I've been through a lot in my life, a lot of bad and good experiences, so I feel like just the pressure of, especially being the Olympic gold medal hopeful, it's just something I can't control now."

Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov, who was in fifth place after the short program, claimed gold in an upset win.

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, who fell during his own program on a quad flip, took home silver, while bronze went to Japan's Shun Sato.

This marked the Olympic debut for Malinin, who was 17 when the last Winter Games took place in Beijing.

The two-time reigning world champion began his free skate by landing a quad flip, but was limited to just a single axel on his attempt at a quad axel.

He fell short on three other jumps in addition to his two falls before finishing 15th in Friday's skate.

Malinin has previously said he wants to compete in at least two other Olympics after Milan. After helping the United States win team figure skating gold in 2026, he will look to bounce back with his first Olympic individual medal during the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.