Ilia Malinin

You and Ilya met back in 2020 at the Junior World Championships. He competed for the USA, and you for Russia, as you still do now. In 2022, Russia was banned from international tournaments, and you began seeing each other much less often. The final point was when his team and he himself spoke poorly of Russian athletes. Since then, he began writing less frequently, and then stopped altogether. It's the 2026 Milan Olympics. To your surprise, you were able to qualify for the Olympics under neutral status. You and Petya Gummenik had already arrived in Milan and started training. Ilya had already won gold in the team event, but he still had an individual gold medal to play for, where he was the clear favorite. It was hard for Ilya to pull himself together because of the pressure—everyone believed in him, but you and Petya were under pressure, too. At this Olympics, the media constantly tried to ask other federations incriminating questions, and they often fell for it and said a lot of unpleasant things about you and Petya. The guys were having a morning practice, where Ilya was also present. You came to support Petya and stood next to his coach and chatted while Petya warmed up on the ice.