Athletes for whom an Olympic gold medal is the highest achievement in their sport often try to whistle past the graveyard by saying they intend to treat the Games as just another competition.

Those who are favored to win a gold medal usually double down on that mantra.

Figure skater Ilia Malinin, who came to the 2026 Winter Olympics as the overwhelming favorite to win the men’s singles gold, found out the another-day-at-the-office approach stopped working once he got into the atmosphere of the five-ring circus for the first time.

“I didn’t expect it to be that much,” he said.

And that showed in his unremarkable two performances in the team event, when he skated less impressively than expected but well enough to help his teammates win gold by one point over Japan. He was second in the short program and a shaky first in the free skate, when he needed a win to keep Team USA atop the podium Sunday.

Lesson learned, as was evident in Tuesday’s individual short program, which Malinin soared to victory at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on the strength of the huge quadruple jumps that are what separate him from every other skater in the world.

“For this short program, I felt like I was a lot more comfortable,” he said.

That seemed clear when he nailed his opening jump, a quad flip, with total control and élan. Later in the program, his execution of a quad lutz–triple toe loop combination enthralled the judges so much they gave him the highest score ever (22.03) for a single short program element.

His 108.16 total score bettered that from the short program by 10.16 points. It also gave him a lead of 5.09 points over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama going into Friday’s free skate, where the chance to try as many as seven quads gives Malinin a huge advantage in base value points on rivals who plan three or four. He did a landmark seven clean quads in December’s Grand Prix Final.

“I just felt there was so much pressure,” Malinin said of making his Olympic debut in the team event. “In that team event short program, I was really overpowered by that environment.

“I got too excited, and it came back and bit me. So I really wanted to take things nice and slow this time, be calm, be relaxed.”

Team Malinin thought getting him out of the Olympic maelstrom would help the 21-year-old catch his breath away from all the attention on him. Malinin did his final practice before the short program 35 miles away in Bergamo, where U.S. Figure Skating had secured ice time.

He trained earlier in the day in Bergamo than he would have at the late afternoon scheduled practice in Milan. That gave him more time to relax before the short program, in which he began skating at 10:30 p.m. local time.

Malinin had wanted to take his Olympic introduction “nice and easy,” knowing that he might have to do both programs in the team event. But when you are hellbent on living up to your sobriquet of “Quad God,” the mind can get ahead of itself.

That was the reason why Malinin’s mother, Tatiana Malinina, was dismayed her son was not picked for the 2022 U.S. Olympic team even though he had finished second at that season’s U.S. Championships.

(Given Malinin’s mediocre international results to that point, leaving him off was justifiable if short-sighted.)

“It’s nothing against the other skaters.” Malinina, also one of his coaches, told me a month after the 2022 Olympics.

“This time, (2022), Ilia would have had no expectations.  Next time, he will hopefully go to the Olympics, and everyone will expect him to get a medal, I assume. That is a lot of pressure. When you have no experience, you can break up and not do as well as you want.”

Malinin didn’t break apart in the team event. And it was easy to overlook that he had lost a short program by 14 points as recently as the Grand Prix Final, before rallying to win with a record free skate score.

But he lacked his usual swagger, the fierce, in-your-face attitude that fits right in with the powerful music in his two programs. It was back Tuesday, when he began to feel that having to cope with the pressure made the experience more special.

“The thrill of not just figure skating but competition in itself is going out there, preparing yourself so well, having that attention, all those eyes, on you,” Malinin said. “It really shows you who you truly are. It's one thing to do everything in practice, but it's another skill to be able to perform it under pressure.”

He did it with just two minor flaws in the seven-element, 2-minute, 40-second short program. His second of three spins and his step sequence were not performed to the level for maximum base value, and that cost him about two points.

And had Kagiyama not stepped out of the landing of his triple Axel, the two would have been in a near virtual tie heading to the four-minute, 12-element free skate. But Malinin will begin with a free skate base value lead of some 30 points over his Japanese rival.

“I don't want to get too ahead of myself and say that, you know, it's guaranteed that I'm getting that gold medal,” Malinin said.

It now would be stunning if he didn’t.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at 13 straight Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com.