Figure skating-Former Olympians rally round Malinin after shattering defeat

(corrects to four-times world champion Browning in paragraph 14)

By Lori Ewing

MILAN, Feb 14 : U.S. Olympic greats including Scott Hamilton and Apolo Ohno offered words of encouragement to figure skater Ilia Malinin on Saturday after his disastrous performance on his Games debut.

The 21-year-old American double world champion and red-hot favourite finished eighth after a free programme on Friday that fell apart in spectacular fashion. 

"One performance should never define anyone. A good one or a disappointing one," Scott Hamilton, who won gold for the U.S. at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, posted on X.  

"Ilia Malinin is a class act and someone I greatly admire! As badly as I feel for him tonight, I know he will respond with strength, courage, and dignity. We all love you Ilia!" 

Malinin had been considered a virtual certainty to win gold in Milan after crushing his rivals in an undefeated streak stretching back more than two years.

Instead, he fell twice and landed only three of the seven quadruple jumps he had planned, and was in disbelief as more than two years of competitive dominance dissolved. 

Malinin himself took to Facebook in the small hours of Saturday morning.

"I blew it," he wrote in all-caps. "That's honestly the first thing that came to my mind was 'There's no way that just happened.

"I felt like, going into this competition, I was so ready, I just felt ready getting on that ice. That might have been the reason - that maybe I was too confident that it was gonna go well."

OHNO ADMIRES MALININ'S HONESTY

Gymnastics great Simone Biles, who has also faltered under the glare of the Olympic spotlight, leapt to her feet at the Milano Ice Skating Arena with supportive applause, and former American short-track speedskater Ohno