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  "path": "/mikhail-shaidorov-celebrated-gold-by-skating-in-a-panda-suit",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-22T15:36:07.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Figure Skating",
    "Olympics",
    "2026 olympics",
    "exhibition gala",
    "mikhail shaidorov",
    "pandas",
    "fierce performance",
    "victory lap",
    "instantly iconic",
    "shocking eighth-place finish",
    "interpretation",
    "bedsheet act",
    "tribute to _Mortal Kombat_",
    "shooting Malinin"
  ],
  "textContent": "The NBC Saturday primetime broadcast used the figure skating exhibition gala as a way to provide a curtain call for their appointed Olympic protagonists. Of the five segments they aired from the event, four of them put Americans in the spotlight. Amber Glenn gave a fierce performance that further emphasized her comeback from a disappointing short program. Alysa Liu skated a victory lap after her instantly iconic gold medal-winning free skate. And Ilia Malinin, who will be remembered for his poise in the aftermath of his shocking eighth-place finish, gave an earnest on-ice interpretation of how it feels to have all that pressure and attention so tightly focused on your ability to land a once-impossible jump.\n\nThis abridged version of the gala was a fine send-off to the figure skaters (I could have done without Chock and Bates's whole bedsheet act, to be honest), but NBC's primetime edit drastically undersold just how _Eurovision_ the whole thing was in full: campy and silly and full of moments that make you ask \"Why _that?_ \" The gala serves as a window into the very specific interests of some of the great skaters in the world, and it declares—triumphantly, I would say—that taste and athletic prowess have nothing to do with one another. The silver-winning pair from Georgia put on a tribute to _Mortal Kombat_, complete with the voice that shouts \"Mortal Kombat!\" Niina Petrõkina pantomined shooting Malinin during a theater-kid's dream of a skate to \"Cell Block Tango.\" Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii performed to, in order, \"Macarena,\" \"YMCA,\" and \"Cotton Eye Joe.\" And the gold-medal winning Mikhail Shaidorov topped them all by spinning around in a panda costume, making his own farewell to Milan an homage to the Jack Black animated franchise _Kung Fu Panda_.\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDpO6zgVCrk",
  "title": "Mikhail Shaidorov Celebrated Gold By Skating In A Panda Suit"
}