Fans concerned after ‘Quad God’ Ilia Malinin shares vulnerable TikTok posts after Winter Olympics humiliation

Concerned fans of USA skater Ilia Malinin flooded his social media with messages of support after the Winter Olympics star shared some vulnerable posts following his nightmare competing on Friday night.

The 21-year-old was the overwhelming favorite to win gold in the men’s free skate final in Italy but was struggling mentally before taking to the ice and after falling twice, he finished in eighth place. It is one of the biggest shocks of the Games so far.

‘I just had so many thoughts and memories flood right before I got into my starting pose, and almost, I think, it maybe overwhelmed me a little bit. I’ve been through a lot in my life, a lot of bad and good experiences,’ Malinin told NBC Washington in a reporter scrum after the competition.

‘So, I just feel like it’s the pressure of especially being that Olympic gold medal hopeful. It was just something I can’t control now.’

But since then, his thousands of fans have been concerned after Malinin reposted several vulnerable TikTok posts, including one which Fox reported as saying: ‘Sometimes I wish something bad would just happen to me so I don’t have to do it myself.’

Another repost apparently said: ‘It hurts because I’m trying my hardest but nothing I do is ever good enough for anything or anyone.’

Malinin has since taken those reposts down in what appears to be a positive sign, but fans are still worried about how the Virginia native has taken Friday’s disappointment on one of the biggest stages of all.

‘Can someone please check on Ilia,’ one fan wrote under one of his remaining TikTok posts.

Another commented: ‘Ilia is strong. He will come back even stronger. He won our hearts.’ 

Malinin left one repost up, which had the more positive caption of: ‘No matter how hard things get, just know everything will be ok.’

And his followers were encouraged to see that, with one responding: ‘Finally a hopeful one.’ 

Malinin underlined that the weight of expectation on the biggest stage of them all was perhaps the biggest factor in his struggle to perform.

‘The pressure of the Olympics, it’s really something different, and I think not a lot of people understand that,’ he said. 

‘They only understand that from the inside and going into this competition, especially today, I felt really confident, really good. 

‘But it really just went by so fast I did not have time to process.’