Gymnast Simone Biles consoles Ilia Malinin after ‘heartbreaking’ Olympic collapse

MILAN – Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles has revealed that she reached out to offer support to US figure skater Ilia Malinin after witnessing his heartbreaking Olympic collapse at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Games.

Biles was in the stands at the Milano Ice Skating Arena when fellow American Malinin, the hot favourite,

tumbled from first place

after the men’s short programme to finish eighth.

“I was really worried about how his mental health was going to be,” Biles told Olympics.com.

“When you’re expected to skate a performance of your lifetime and you don’t deliver, I worry how that affects his mental and how the world is going to view that.

“I’ve been through that firsthand and so I really went into protection mode.”

Biles suffered a similar fate when she arrived as favourite at the Tokyo Games in 2021, having won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Games.

But she

suffered the “twisties”

– a mental block triggered by stress or anxiety – and withdrew from events to prioritise her mental health.

Following Tokyo, Biles stepped away, and returned

to win three golds and one silver

medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

“It was a process of a couple of years,” the 28-year-old said.

“I think people have a misconception that I just woke up one day and everything was all fine and done. But it was a combination of going every day, grinding in and out of the gym.”

So watching two-time world champion Malinin fall to his first defeat in over two years, she responded without hesitation.

“It was really heartbreaking,” she said.

“I did a couple bullet points and just sent it to him right away so he knew that he had support in a different aspect.”

On Feb 17, the pair met in Milan.

“Seeing someone and talking to someone that has gone through the same thing and validating that... he’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, this is exactly how I feel. This is how to get over it or process it.’

“And so I think that was really, hopefully, helpful to him.”

Meanwhile, in other news from the Milano-Cortina Games, Paolo Petrecca has resigned as head of the sports division of Italian state broadcaster RAI, the company said on Feb 19, two weeks after his error-ridden commentary at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony triggered a revolt among its journalists.

Petrecca, who is close to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, faced widespread criticism for his performance and had already been barred by RAI from commentating at the closing gala on Feb 22.

At the opening ceremony, Petrecca muddled up the stadium hosting the event, confused an Italian actress for US singer Mariah Carey and misidentified International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry as the daughter of Italy’s head of state.

He also failed to recognise two well-known members of Italy’s women’s volleyball team taking part in the torch relay. He made comments about some of the national delegations that were widely criticised, including saying that Spanish athletes were “always very hot” and that many Chinese athletes “naturally... have phones in their hands”.

Petrecca has not spoken in public since the event. RAI management has also not responded to the controversy.

The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, said his commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility and last week called a one-day byline strike for all reporters. RAI sports journalists had announced that they would hold a three-day strike once the Games were over. AFP, REUTERS