Why can’t Ilia Malinin handle pressure? Sports psychologists offer their thoughts

When 21-year-old figure skater Ilia Malinin surprised everyone with his poor performance in the men’s singles figure skating event – falling from first to eighth due to a mistake-ridden free routine – he cited the pressure of the moment as one of the reasons for his struggle.

“All the pressure, all the media, and the prospect of gold at the Olympics was too much,” he said immediately after the result. “It was too much.”

In an interview with “TODAY” on Tuesday, his most extensive comment since his free skate, Malinin admitted he wasn’t mentally ready for the Olympic spotlight.

“Actually, it’s not a pleasant feeling. The most honest way of saying that there’s just a lot for you, a lot of eyes, a lot of attention,” said Malinin about his expectations in Milan. “It can come to you if you’re not ready to accept it fully, so I think that might be one of the mistakes I made going into that free skate because I wasn’t ready to handle that fully.”

Malinin, who dominated the world championships, was honest and vulnerable about his mental problems at the Olympics. But the problems he encounters are not necessarily novel.

“Stress starts with changes and changes in thinking, attitude and perspective,” says Robert Andrews, a consultant and mind-training therapist. He previously worked with seven-time gold medalist Simone Biles, who famously had her own mental health issues during the Tokyo Games.

“[Malinin] he said he was fighting against the opposite thoughts, and that would change the inner pressure.” “And when you change internal pressure, the body reacts to that often in not so good ways.”

Andrews was not working with Biles when she had a “twisted mind,” mentally disturbed while performing stunts that Biles said were the result of the emotional stress of competing in the Olympics. But he said there is a line between Biles and Malinin, who both struggled at the Olympic level.

“This meltdown, whatever you want to call it, is always stress-related,” Andrews said.

Michael Gervais, a sports psychologist who has worked with athletes at four Olympics, said Malinin may have been thinking about the potential fallout from poor performance when he took to the ice for his free skate.

“Our mentality is made to survive,” said Gervais, who has worked in the NFL, most recently with the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks.

“We have a survival bias, and that means our brains are heavily armed, scanning the world for all dangers,” he said. “So, what he was doing at that time, his mind was doing what most geniuses do, which is to scan the whole world and find all the threats. And there are many threats, not physical, but there are many threats in the world competition.”

The concept of pressure or high expectations is not unique to Malinin, although Olympic athletes differ in their ways of dealing with it.

Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam, for example, told NBC News that she can’t focus on outside opinions or pressure. Leerdam, who is also famous for being Jake Paul’s fiancee, said she tried to reprogram her brain for “years” to protect herself from being distracted by outside noise.

American sprinter Erin Jackson, on the other hand, told NBC News that she welcomes the pressure, because it brings out her individuality and adds an edge to her performance.

Malinin, to be fair, entered the Olympics with perhaps the greatest distinction of any American athlete. And he was not expected to get a medal, he was expected to win the gold by a wide margin when he did a difficult pigeon that he did alone.

Although Malinin has managed to break through international competitions for the past three years, the Olympics are a completely different stage – with a new level of pressure. Malinin himself spoke about the added weight of the Winter Games when he was heard after his free skate saying that his performance would have been different if he had been selected for the Beijing 2022 team.

“What makes the Olympic competition so stressful is because you have so many opportunities to win a medal, and it’s seen as a lifelong pursuit,” said Michael Heck, a therapist who works with Andrews at the Institute of Sports Performance.

After his skate, Malinin did not provide specifics but said that “sad moments” and negative thoughts filled his mind before the skate. According to Heck, those problems may have started before the Olympics.

“There are all kinds of protective activities that these athletes must do in order to maintain the authenticity of the competition, so that they can always focus on clarifying what motivates them,” he said. “If there’s trauma that hasn’t been resolved, it shows, because whatever he was dealing with wasn’t dealt with yet, so he couldn’t do a defensive job, he’s going to be flooded at some point.”

So if Malinin decides he wants to return to the Olympics in 2030 in the French Alps, can he overcome the problems that have prevented him from performing at the highest level in Milan? The short answer seems to be yes.

Andrews said there are many practices he would use with someone in Malinin’s position, from trying to train the unconscious mind to desensitization techniques to make sure he processes his trauma, all in an effort to do what Andrews calls “disruptive work.”

“You can train your mind to go where you want to go,” Andrews said.

Ultimately, Malinin’s fall could make him the best contender going forward.

“His reality is that he experienced something that was humbling and humbling,” Heck said. “But in the sense of excellence, taking this as a difficult part of your process. You can really learn from humility.”

Gervais added: “This is a very emotional experience and there are a number of better ways in the field of sports psychology to assess these events. I don’t know him, but I would imagine his future is very bright.”