Olympics-Figure skating-Malinin powers U.S. past Japan to team gold in Milan

By Rory Carroll and Lori Ewing

MILAN, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Ilia Malinin lifted the United States above Japan to the top of the podium at the Milano Cortina Games on Sunday to cap a thrilling team competition where home team Italy captured bronze.

With the U.S. and Japan tied going into the men’s free skate, the 21-year-old Malinin was not at his best but was still good enough to lead the U.S. a second successive Olympic team title.

Malinin had been expected to perform seven quads in his free skate but ended up attempting only five, and even those were not flawless as he stumbled out his quad Lutz. He turned two planned quads – including the quad Axel – into triples.

But he salvaged his programme with a huge quad toeloop followed up by a quad Salchow, both in combinations.

His score of 200.03 was almost 40 points less than his season’s best but still good enough to defeat Japan’s Shun Sato, who went after Malinin and but was unable to match his rival’s technical ability.

The U.S. finished with 69 points, one more than Japan, while Italy took bronze with 60 points.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll and Lori Ewing in Milan; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)