Ilia Malinin Shares What He Told Amber Glenn After She Struggled in Women's Short Program at Olympics (Exclusive)

The 21-year-old figure skater tells PEOPLE he spoke with his fellow Team USA star soon after her performance on Tuesday

NEED TO KNOW

• Ilia Malinin tells PEOPLE he talked to Amber Glenn after her short program didn’t go to plan
• The 21-year-old figure skater understands better than most how Glenn felt on Tuesday night
• Malinin and Glenn are both going home from the 2026 Winter Olympics as gold medalists, after winning the team event together on Feb. 8

Ilia Malinin was one of the few people who could innately understand how Amber Glenn felt after her performance in the women's short program.

Malinin, 21, was in the building when Glenn, 26, and her fellow "Blade Angels" Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito performed in the first night of the women's individual figure skating competition on Tuesday, Feb. 17, which ended up being far from the skate Glenn had hoped for.

The first-time Olympian, who came in to the competition as the reigning U.S. national champion, popped her planned triple loop partway through her short program, invalidating the move and sinking her score. She moved through the rest of the program without her usual power, and skated off the ice in tears.

It was a night Malinin could relate to, coming just four days after he similarly missed planned elements in his free skate during the men's figure skating final on Friday and left the ice struggling to hold back tears. He tells PEOPLE in an interview on Wednesday, Feb. 18 that he talked to Glenn soon after her performance.

"I've told her that, you know, this is something that we all go through," he says. "It's, you know, it's not always a pleasant feeling, but it's something that we need to embrace and we have to move on from no matter what, because no matter what happens, we always have to get up and go do it again."

Malinin has been there for Glenn the same way she and their fellow Team USA skaters were there for him this past weekend in the aftermath of his eighth-place finish, he says.

"So many different athletes, you know, friends, teammates, even just randoms too. They're all there for me," he says. "And even people outside from the village. Just so much love, so much support and just such an honor."

Glenn will perform her free skate in the final night of the women's figure skating competition Thursday night, and regardless of what happens, both she and Malinin are still going home winners, having taken gold in the team event on Feb. 8. Malinin tells PEOPLE, though, that he gained more in defeat.

"I think honestly, you learn more from losing than you do winning, so I think I'm definitely gonna be able to learn a lot from this so I can come back better and stronger and really just know what I was up against," he says. "It's one thing to experience the Olympics for the first time, but it's another to go again and know what's gonna happen and really know how to prepare yourself better."

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.

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