MILAN — The comparisons were immediate, undeniable and haunting. When Ilia Malinin shockingly stumbled across the ice in his long program Friday night at the Winter Olympic Games, who didn’t think of Simone Biles battling the ‘twisties’ and withdrawing from the gymnastics team competition four and a half years earlier at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, especially with Biles herself in the arena watching?
Both were high-profile athletes carrying the burden of great expectations for themselves, their families, their teammates and their nation. Both then found themselves dealing with, and reeling from, the awfulness that exists on social media, even as they rely on it to tell their stories, please their sponsors and bring fans along for the ride.
For those who say athletes like Malinin, Biles, skier Lindsey Vonn and others are too focused on promoting themselves, consider the relatively small window available for Olympians to make money.
The commercial deals they get almost always come before the Olympics. When the Games end, some receive more endorsements and speaking opportunities, but mostly, the sports world moves on without them, turning in this case to the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and the upcoming baseball season. There is incredible pressure on an Olympian to make money before and during the Games, because nothing is certain afterward.
And for those older Olympians from another era who privately think athletes today should just deal with the pressure as they themselves once did, social media has changed everything. Anyone can attach themselves to Malinin or Biles or Vonn in a post. It’s there for all to see, including the athlete, the moment they look at their phone.
Thinking back to Tokyo, Biles said on a 2024 episode of the ‘Call Her Daddy” podcast that she thought, ‘The world is going to hate me, and I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now. … I thought I was going to be banned from America because that’s what they tell you: Don’t come back. If it’s not gold, gold or bust, don’t come back.’
Several decades ago, a negative newspaper critique of an Olympian, even from a big paper at the height of the Games, could go unread and ignored by the athlete until after he or she competed — and maybe never even read at all.
On Monday, the Olympic Games woke up to this Instagram post from the 21-year-old Malinin:
‘On the world’s biggest stage, those who appear the strongest may still be fighting invisible battles on the inside. Even your happiest memories can end up tainted by the noise. Vile online hatred attacks the mind and fear lures it into the darkness, no matter how hard you try to stay sane through the endless insurmountable pressure. It all builds up as these moments flash before your eyes, resulting in an inevitable crash. This is that version of the story.”
He finished this way: ‘Coming February 21, 2026,” a reference believed to be about his performance in the Olympic figure skating gala Saturday. It will be his first time in front of an audience since his poor performance on the final night of men’s skating, dropping him out of the medals to eighth place.
The exhibition skate will perhaps be the most watched in Olympic figure skating history. But with his Instagram post Monday, he has already ensured that a high-profile conversation about mental health will command center stage during the second week of these Games.