Ilia Malinin had a clear path to the gold medal on Friday night – but that’s why nothing is played on paper.

The 21-year-old American skating phenom, who has been nicknamed the “Quad God” for his amazing leaping ability, failed to medal after being the heavy favorite to win gold, finishing in eighth place.

Malinin dominated the short program earlier this week, entering the day leading by more than five points with a score of 108.16. But Friday was the polar opposite.

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Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts after competing in the men’s singles skating on day seven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, Feb. 13, 2026. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Malinin connected on a quad-flip to start but then settled for a single axel. He then had a double loop instead of a quad loop, which was not exactly what he had hoped for. 

It was all downhill from there. Malinin then fell on a quad lutz attempt and then fell on another jump shortly after. He scored a 156.33, a far cry from his world record of 238.24 he set in December, and the 200-mark he routinely hits in the free skate.

Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan wound up winning the gold, with a total score of 291.58, a personal best. His 198.94 score in Friday’s free skate was also the highest of his career.

Yuma Kagiyama of Japan got the silver, and Shun Sato, Kagiyama’s teammate, came away with the bronze.

Malinin, who posts total scores in the 300s regular, settled for just 264.49. His personal best is 333.81.

Ilia Malinin of the United States reacts after competing in the men’s singles skating on day seven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, Feb. 13, 2026. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

While on the bench, Malinin said that if he had been in Beijing four years ago, he would not have skated as poorly as he did. Malinin was 17 when he was left off the roster for veterans. That was a tell-tale sign of a mental battle, which Malinin confirmed it was almost immediately after he got off the ice.

SLOVAK MAN WHO TRAVELED TO WINTER OLYMPICS TO CHEER ON HOCKEY TEAM ARRESTED AFTER 16 YEARS ON LAM

“I was not expecting that,” Malinin said. “Honestly, I can’t process what just happened.”

Milanin said he was actually “too confident it was going to go well.”

When asked what his initial thoughts were when he came off the ice, he kept it real simple.

Ilia Malinin of the United States competes during the men’s free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 13, 2026. (Ashley Landis/AP Photo)

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“I blew it.”

It won’t be all failures for Malinin, as he earned gold in the team event earlier in the Games. He also is only 21 years old with nine victories in international competition in his career, so he has plenty of time to rewrite his story.

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Under-20s Six Nations: Ireland v Italy

Ireland (15) 30

Tries: Barrett, Ryan, Moloney, Neill Cons: Wood 2 Pens: Wood 2

Italy (17) 27

Tries: Rossi, Pelli, de Rossi Con: Braga 2 Pen: Braga

Ireland held off late Italy pressure to win a thrilling Under-20 Six Nations encounter in Cork.

The hosts, who were heavily beaten by France in their opener, made a superb start as Tom Wood slotted over a early penalty and Christopher Barrett crossed in the 12th minute, which Wood converted.

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However, Italy hit back through Lucca Rossi’s converted try, but Daniel Ryan scored with nine minutes left in the first half.

Valerio Pelli responded for Italy five minutes later in an end-to-end half, and the visitors held a 17-15 lead at the break when Francesco Braga landed a penalty with the final play of the half.

Ireland nudged back ahead five minutes after the restart through Derry Moloney, but Pelli touched down for the second time after Irish flanker Joe Finn was sent to the bin.

Despite being down to 14 players, Josh Neill barged over and Wood added the conversion, with the son of former Ireland captain Keith then landing his second penalty to extend Ireland’s advantage.

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Jacopo de Rossi set up a grandstand finish, and Italy had one last attack to snatch the game, but the Irish defence held firm to secure a first win in this year’s tournament.

Ireland U20: N Byrne; D Moloney; J O’Sullivan, J O’Leary; D Ryan; T Wood, C Barrett; M Doyle, L Fitzpatrick, S Bishti; D McNeice, D McGuire; J Neill, B Hayes, D O’Connell.

Replacements: R Handley, C Foley, B McClean, B Blaney, B Hayes, J O’Dwyer, C O’Shea, J O’Sullivan.

Italy U20: E Vitale, M Faissal; D Coluzzi, R Casarin; L Rossi; F Braga, A Teodosio; C Brasini, V Pelli, L Trevisan; S Fardin, E Opoku-Gyamfi; A Italo Miranda, CA Bianchi, D Sette.

Replacements: J De Rossi, G Messori, L Tosi, JN Wilson, M Spreafichi, N Varotto, T Del Sureto, A Scaramazza.

Florida basketball (18-6, 9-2) moved up to No. 7 on the NET rankings following a 20-point win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday night, the Gators‘ fourth-straight blowout win against an SEC team.

The Gators are now ahead of top-10 staples UConn and Iowa State, who sit at Nos. 8 and 9, respectively. Florida notably lost to the Huskies in early December by four points, but UF has steadily climbed the NET rankings from No. 33 back on Nov. 30. Florida has spent the last week ranked inside the top 10 and is now approaching the top five. Florida is one of two teams in the top 12 with five or more losses, the other being No. 5 Illinois (20-5).

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Four of Florida’s seven remaining regular-season games are against Quadrant 1 teams, including Saturday’s home matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats, so the Gators have several chances to break into the top five.

Breaking down Florida’s wins by Quadrant

Before going into Florida’s resume, it’s important to understand how the quadrants are divided. Where a game is played has as much to do with the quadrant as the quality of the opponent. As the rankings change, so does the quality of the wins.

• Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75

• Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135

• Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240

• Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

Quadrant 1 Games

Florida is 7-5 in Quadrant 1 games.

Non-conference losses came against No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Duke and No. 8 UConn. All three are considered very good losses. The Gators’ non-conference Q1 win came against No. 36 Miami at a neutral site (Jacksonville) and No. 47 TCU. The Hurricanes are firmly in Quadrant 1, while the Horned Frogs recently moved back within the top-50 threshold.

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Several of Florida’s SEC games were against Q1 opponents. The Missouri (No. 57) loss on the road remains in Quadrant 1, which is good for the Gators, but Auburn remains just outside of the top 30, dropping out of Q1 territory. The Q1 conference wins came against No. 15 Vanderbilt, No. 21 Alabama, No. 22 Tennessee, No. 43 Texas A&M and No. 73 Oklahoma. The most recent win over No. 35 Georgia came on the road, which makes it a Quadrant 1 win.

Quadrant 2 Games

In Quadrant 2 games, Florida is 5-1, with wins over No. 35 Georgia, No. 58 LSU — both at home — and at No. 112 South Carolina (road) during conference play. The other two Q2 wins came during the non-conference schedule against No. 77 Providence and No. 91 George Washington, both at a neutral site.

Florida’s lone Quadrant 2 losses came against No. 31 Auburn. The Tigers are one spot away from reentering Quadrant 1 territory, however.

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Quadrant 3 and 4 games

The only Quadrant 3 game Florida has played in so far was a home game against No. 95 Florida State. The Seminoles have trended down most of the season but recently climbed more than 40 spots in the NET. The Seminoles still need to get to No. 75 to reach Q2.

Florida went 5-0 against Q4 teams, beating No. 187 Merrimack, No. 198 Colgate, No. 236 Dartmouth, No. 339 North Florida and No. 353 Saint Francis by an average of 33.6 points.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida basketball’s NET ranking after beating Georgia on the road

Even before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) handed down its ruling on Friday, disqualified Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladislav Heraskevych appeared to concede defeat.

“It looks like this train has left,” the 27-year-old, draped in the Ukrainian flag, told reporters after emerging from a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in Milan.

“I cannot do another race so it is done.”

He said he had no plans to return to the sliding venue during these Winter Olympic Games but still felt he had done the right thing by trying to compete with a helmet adorned with portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed in Russia’s war on their country.

‘I hope truth will prevail’

“I’m really thankful for the opportunity to speak and we were treated equally at the hearing room and arguments were heard.

“We are waiting for the decisions, but as you see I look pretty happy so I’m pretty positive about how it went. I hope truth will prevail and still I know that I was innocent.”

The appeal was heard on Friday morning by an ad hoc division of the Swiss-based court, which was moved by his story but ruled against him anyway.

The arbitrator, CAS said, “is fully sympathetic to Mr. Heraskevych’s commemoration and to his attempt to raise awareness for the grief and devastation suffered by the Ukrainian people, and Ukrainian athletes because of the war.”

Olympic Charter Rule 50

Heraskevych was prevented from competing in the men’s skeleton, which began on Thursday, due to a ruling by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the helmet he had intended to wear violated Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. It states that: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

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The medals in men’s skeleton were to be awarded later on Friday.

The helmet in question bears the portraits of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes who have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

He had worn the helmet in his five training runs – each time placing among the top six.

The IOC interpreted the depictions of the killed Ukrainian athletes as a political statement, something that the skeleton racer disputes.

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“I am convinced that we are not breaking any rules. I also believe that we have had and continue to have this attention all these days because people understand that we are on the right side and have not broken any rules,” he said.

Solidarity from Ukrainian lugers, President Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian luge relay team expressed solidarity with Heraskevych during their competition on Thursday. In the finish area, the six athletes knelt together, held up their helmets, and shouted: “Vlad, we are with you, Ukraine, we stand with you.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that he will award Heraskevych a medal of merit.

On the X platform, he sharply criticized the IOC, writing that “Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, ​and ‌the Olympic movement should help stop wars, ‌not play into the ‌hands ​of aggressors.”

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A group of around 40 members of the European Parliament have also sent an open letter to the IOC, calling on it to reconsider its decision.

IOC ‘open to everything’

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry, who had personally delivered the news of Heraskevych’s ban to the athlete on Thursday, said there were no immediate plans to review the rules governing political expression.

“I have had a number of conversations with ‌athletes ​over the last couple of days. They still feel strongly that we should be able to keep part of our Olympic movement, and their Olympic experience, safe,” Coventry ‌told a Friday press conference.

“If our athletes ​would like us to look at it (the rules), we are open to everything. But the rules are the rules as of today, and I believe they are good rules.

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Newly minted FBS school North Dakota State found itself in a position similar to Alabama fans during the heyday of Nick Saban’s dynasty: It simply won too much. The school has captured 10 national championships in 15 years. Within the fan base, the expectation is not just success, but success at the highest level.

Attendance for early-round home playoff games that NDSU is expected to win handily has suffered. This year’s loss to Illinois State drew an official attendance of 10,464 to the 19,000-seat Fargodome, roughly half full. Despite five interceptions from Redbirds quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse, the No. 1 Bison lost. It marked the first time NDSU had fallen before the quarterfinal round since 2009 and the first time a No. 1 seed lost its playoff opener since 2004.

Few knew it at the time, but it was NDSU’s final game at the FCS level. A process that began ramping up in late fall accelerated in January, when athletic director Matt Larsen began to believe the program was moving up from the division it had dominated since 2004. For a segment of the Bison fan base, the move to FBS will provide a new challenge.

“I do think there’s an element of our fan base of what’s next we’ve had great success, is there a next iteration at a higher level for Bison football?” NDSU AD Matt Larsen told CBS Sports. “And so I think that’s where, if you would ask me, six or seven years ago, where the fan base was, they probably weren’t there yet, right? But four national championships later, and I think the majority of Bison nation would tell you that this is the right next step, and it’s the right time to do it.”

To compete in the FBS, North Dakota State has to be up to par not only on the field, but also financially. NDSU will pay $5 million to the NCAA to transition and a $12.5 million entry fee to the Mountain West over six years.

Consider the Fargodome. the longtime home to the Bison is owned by the city of Fargo and requires voter approval for renovations. A referendum has failed twice in recent years. Larsen said the Fargodome has a reserve fund earmarked for renovations, but the 32-year-old building needs updates, particularly for more premium seating. A pending convention center project — which may or may not be located at the Fargodome site — also factors into the decision-making.

North Dakota State opened a 117,000-square-foot, $54 million football facility in 2022. Its total athletic department budget is about $30 million annually, and Sportico reported the school spent $8.4 million on football in the last fiscal year. Larsen expects that figure to double within two years, accounting for staffing, scholarships, revenue sharing and coaching compensation.

The school’s primary athletics fundraising arm said it has “tentatively raised” $25 million for the move. NDSU does not expect to add sports to offset the increase in football scholarships from 65 to 85 upon moving to FBS.

The school will receive a full share of Mountain West television revenue by 2032, but as CBS Sports previously reported, it will collect 50% of College Football Playoff and bowl revenue distributed to full members this year and 100% after its second postseason appearance. The school plans to challenge the NCAA’s two-year probationary period that bars it from postseason play.

As with many realignment cases, the loss of tradition is part of the cost. South Dakota State and North Dakota State have met 118 times and have played for the Dakota Marker trophy since 2004. The rivalry has often determined FCS supremacy, with one or both teams ranked in the top five when they meet. After the 2022 season, they faced each other in the national championship game.

“I would say for the foreseeable future, it’s probably on hold,” Larsen said. “I think our rivalry was one out of really great respect between programs that did it the right way. And so I think there’s so many positives to this move, I think the one thing you could say that our fans are going to miss it’s playing for the Dakota Marker, because there were some epic games over the course of the last 10-15, years that have created great memories and great opportunities for our fans.”

As one FCS administrator cautioned to CBS Sports, there is a “careful what you wish for” element to moving up — trading double-digit win seasons and championship runs for years that could end in a lower-tier bowl game in a far-flung locale that is difficult to reach. The novelty can be appealing at first, but it fades without winning.

Still, there is reason for optimism about the Bison’s ability to compete quickly. Programs with less FCS pedigree have made successful transitions in recent years.

The newest FCS-to-FBS members, Delaware and Missouri State, both finished 7-5 and reached bowl games in their debut seasons. After struggling in its 2024 debut, Kennesaw State went 10-2 under new coach Jerry Mack and won a conference championship over Jacksonville State, which moved up in 2023 and has won at least eight games in each of its first three FBS seasons under two different coaches. Sam Houston also moved up in 2023 and, in its second year, narrowly missed a Conference USA title while winning 10 games. James Madison transitioned in 2022 under Curt Cignetti and has won at least eight games every year since. The 2025 season under Bob Chesney culminated in a College Football Playoff berth.

The relative ease of those transitions raises questions about the gap between the top half of the FCS and the Group of Five conferences.

In many respects, North Dakota State accomplished all it could at the FCS level. Now, the FBS journey begins.

After Dplus’ recent victory over DRX, Gen.G has chosen the former as its next opponent for the League of Legends LCK Cup 2026 Playoffs. Since this best-of-five series is not an elimination match, the loser will fall to the lower bracket. On the other hand, the winning team will proceed to the next stage and face the victor of the T1-FEARX series.

Here are the details about the Gen.G vs Dplus clash in the League of Legends LCK Cup 2026 Playoffs taking place on February 14, 2026.

Gen.G vs Dplus in League of Legends LCK Cup 2026 Playoffs: Can Dplus stop Gen.G’s impeccable winning streak?

Prediction

With the same roster as last year, Gen.G is yet to lose a game and has shown exceptional dominance in the LCK Cup 2026 so far. Furthermore, it already defeated Dplus 2-0 earlier in the tournament, with top laner Kiin outclassing the opponent with the Gwen and Rumble picks.

That said, all five of Gen.G’s players are performing admirably and have a vast champion pool. Ryu, the team’s head coach, is also doing an excellent job during the draft phase. Overall, the team excels at capitalizing on opponents’ mistakes while making few early-game misplays themselves.

Dplus, on the other hand, finished second in the group and then beat DRX twice to reach this stage. Despite the team being a force to be reckoned with, there’s a major problem regarding its consistency.

Dplus usually dominates the early game and secures a gold lead, but fails to snowball in the later stages and occasionally makes schoolboy errors. So, if the team’s laning phases go well and the players mitigate the mistakes, the series against Gen.G can certainly be competitive.

But the probability of that is too low, as Gen.G is clinical at securing neutral objectives and winning crucial team fights. On paper, the series should be a quick 3-0 for Chovy and co.

Prediction: Gen.G 3 – 0 Dplus

Head-to-head record

Gen.G has won 15 of the 16 games between these two teams, while Dplus has only won once.

Previous results

Gen.G won its earlier series 3-0 against Hanwha Life. On the other hand, Dplus won 3-2 against DRX.

Rosters

Gen.G

• Top: Kiin
• Jungle: Canyon
• Mid: Chovy
• ADC: Ruler
• Support: Duro
• Head coach: Ryu

Dplus

• Top: Siwoo
• Jungle: Lucid
• Mid: ShowMaker
• ADC: Smash
• Support: Career
• Head coach: cvMax

Also read: What are the new and returning items in LoL Season 16?

Gen.G vs Dplus in League of Legends LCK Cup 2026 Playoffs: Starting time countdown and how to watch

The matchup of Gen.G vs Dplus in the LCK Cup 2026 Playoffs is scheduled to start at the following times:

• PT: February 14, 2026, at 12 am
• CET: February 14, 2026, at 9 am
• IST: February 14, 2026, at 1:30 pm
• Beijing CST: February 14, 2026, at 4 pm
• KST: February 14, 2026, at 5 pm

To watch the LCK Cup 2026 match live, visit the following websites:

Match result

TBD

Check out more League of Legends news and updates: