It all comes down to this.
Today, Feb. 13, Ilia Malinin (a.k.a the Quad God) will skate for an Olympic gold medal in the free skate portion of the men’s singles figure skating event.
Malinin ended the short program in first place, with a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagayama, thanks to a program where he performed two quads — a quad lutz and a quad flip — and landed a backflip.
Will he perform a quad axel on Olympic ice? That remains to be seen, but it’s possible we’ll see it this afternoon. The quad axel is the hardest jump in the sport, and one only Malinin has ever performed in competition.
“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it that day,” he said after his short program on Tuesday. “But of course I always want to prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it and not have that as something that I’m gonna risk.”
OLYMPIC figure skating: what to know
- What: Men’s free skate
- When: February 13, 1 p.m. ET
- Where: Milano Ice Skating Arena (Milan, Italy)
- Channel: USA Network (12:45 p.m. ET), NBC (3 p.m.)
- Streaming: DIRECTV (try it free)
If Malinin keeps his lead, he’ll be the third United States men’s figure skater to capture individual gold this century; the other two are Evan Lysacek (2010) and Nathan Chen (2022).
All three of Team USA’s skaters qualified for the free skate; Maxim Naumov goes 11th today, while Andrew Torgashev goes 17th.
Olympics figure skating men’s free skate start time
The men’s short program at the Olympics 2026 begins at 1 p.m. ET today, Feb. 13. While coverage kicks off on USA Network, the program moves to NBC at 3 p.m. ET for the remaining performances.
How to watch Olympic figure skating for free
If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream the Olympics for free.
DIRECTV is our favorite service for watching TV live for free — it has a five-day free trial and there are a ton of options for plans that include both USA Network and NBC, starting at $69.99/month.
You can also catch every minute of the Olympics with a subscription to Peacock, which starts at $10.99/month.
Figure skating – men’s free skate start list
The start order for the free skate is determined by placements following the short program, with the skater atop the leaderboard starting last. Below, find the start list alongside each skater’s rhythm dance (RD) score.
- Yu-Hsiang Li (CHN) – RD score: 72.41
- Donovan Carrillo (MEX) – RD score: 75.56
- Kao Miura (JPN) – RD score: 76.77
- Vladimir Samoilov (POL) – RD score: 77.57
- Adam Hagara (SVK) – RD score: 80.30
- Lukas Britschgi (SUI) – RD score: 80.87
- Aleksandr Selevko (EST) – RD score: 82.02
- Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) – RD score: 82.44
- Matteo Rizzo (ITA) – RD score: 84.30
- Nika Egadze (GEO) – RD score: 85.11
- Maxim Naumov (USA) – RD score: 85.65
- Boyang Jin (CHN) – RD score: 86.55
- Petr Gumennik (AIN) – RD score: 86.72
- Kyrylo Marsak (UKR) – RD score: 86.89
- Stephen Gogolev (CAN) – RD score: 87.41
- Shun Sato (JPN) – RD score: 88.70
- Andrew Torgashev (USA) – RD score: 88.94
- Kevin Aymoz (FRA) – RD score: 92.64
- Junhwah Cha (KOR) – RD score: 92.72
- Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) – RD score: 92.94
- Daniel Grassl (ITA) – RD score: 93.46
- Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) – RD score: 102.55
- Yuma Kagayama (JPN) – RD score: 103.07
- Ilia Malinin (USA) – RD score: 108.16
Figure Skating at the Olympics 2026 schedule
- Men’s Singles – Free Skating — Feb. 13, 1 p.m. ET*
- Pairs – Short Program — Feb. 15, 1:45 p.m. ET
- Pairs – Free Skating — Feb. 16, 2 p.m. ET*
- Women’s Singles – Short Program — Feb. 17, 12:45 p.m. ET
- Women’s Singles – Free Skating — Feb. 19, 1 p.m. ET*
- Exhibition Gala — Feb. 21, 2 p.m. ET
*medals awarded
When do the Winter Olympics end?
The 2026 Winter Olympics end with the closing ceremony on Feb. 22 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Why Trust Post Wanted by the New York Post
This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping, Page Six, and Decider.com. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she’s also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. When she’s not writing about (or watching) TV, movies, and sports, she’s also keeping up on the underrated perfume dupes at Bath & Body Works and testing headphones. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews.
