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Last week I skipped class. Sorry, Mom.

I didn’t skip to clean my room or tackle the assignments that have been sitting open on my computer for a week. Instead, I sat on my couch and doomscrolled on TikTok. Video after video blurred together until one caught my eye: a live reaction to Ilia Malinin falling during his final skate at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Malinin, a figure skater representing Team USA, was projected to win gold by an extreme margin. Before his 2026 Olympic run, he carried a two-year winning streak and two consecutive world titles in men’s figure skating. He is also the only figure skater to have successfully landed a quadruple axle — a feat that earned him the nickname “Quad God.”

Heading into the final skate, Malinin was en route to gold, sitting in first place with a hefty lead. Then everything unraveled. He fell twice, and several jumps were downgraded. By the end of the performance, he had dropped to eighth place, falling off the podium entirely.

After the shocking performance, Malinin began reposting videos on social media with concerning messages that he has since removed. One read, “Your little boy is tired, Mom.” He later........

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