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Team USA’s Ilia Malinin had a sweet moment with Tara Lipinski’s daughter.
Lipinski, 43, took to Instagram on Tuesday, February 17, with a wholesome moment between Malinin, 21, and her 2-year-old daughter, Georgie, whom she shares with husband Todd Kapostasy. In the pic, Malinin beamed for the camera while placing his gold medal, which he won in the figure skating team event, over Georgie’s head. He then picked her up and placed her on his lap.
“This moment 🥺,” Lipinski captioned the post. “You can tell Ilia is a great big brother; he was just so sweet with Georgie. 🥇.” (Malinin is the older brother of Elli Beatrice, 10, and son of Olympian figure skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov.)
More Olympic athletes and celebrities gushed over the moment in the comments section. “🥹🥹🥹,” ice dancer Madison Chock wrote. Lisa Rinna, who Lipinski competed against on The Traitors season 4, also commented, “Cutest!❤️.” A fan praised, “Eeeek!!! So so special.”
After taking home gold for Team USA, Malinin also competed in the men’s single short program and free skate. He was predicted to win an individual gold medal, as he’s been undefeated for two consecutive years, but he came in eighth place on Friday, February 13, after falling twice on the ice. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won the gold medal and Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato took home silver and bronze, respectively.
Following his performance, Malinin told NBC that he “blew it.”
“That’s honestly the first thing that came into my mind — there’s no way that just happened,” he shared. “I was preparing the whole season. I felt so confident with my program. To go out and have that happen … there’s no words, honestly.”
Malinin, a.k.a. the “Quad God,” told Today on Tuesday that the pressure going into the Olympics was “not a pleasant feeling.”
“The most honest way to say it is just a lot on you, so many eyes, so much attention not only from people, or fans, media, it’s just so much and it really can get to you if you’re not ready to fully embrace it,” he explained.
“I think that might be one of the mistakes I made going into that free skate,” Malinin added. “I was not ready to handle that to a full extent, so I think looking back at that, now I’ll be able to kind of understand how that feels so I’ll be able to take a full approach leading up to the next games hopefully.”
Malinin also revealed that he’s received “so much love” and “support” from fans and other athletes, including Tom Brady and Simone Biles.
Biles, who withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after experiencing the twisties, told NBC on Tuesday, “I’ve definitely had a chance to bump into him. I’ve sent him messages on Instagram as well, obviously, it’s all been private because I know what he’s going through and I know most athletes might not be able to relate, and it’s really, really hard to watch.”
Biles added, “I see him coming out on top after this. We’re all just cheering for him.”
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