The “Quad God” took the ice for the first time at the 2026 Winter Games, finishing second in the men’s short program during team event qualifiers

The “Quad God” has arrived in Milan!

In his long-awaited Olympic debut, Ilia Malinin put on a show for the Milan crowd, pulling off a backflip on ice and becoming just the second skater in history to do the move during the Games on Saturday, Feb. 7.

The 21-year-old skated the men’s short program in team event qualifiers, coming in second to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who had a huge night to take first with a score of 108.67. Malinin finished uncharacteristically behind Kagiyama, with a score of 98.00.

Kagiyama went just before Malinin, who said he watched the Japanese skater before taking the ice.

“I did watch his program, I was so inspired,” Malinin told reporters, including PEOPLE, after his performance — but denied that seeing Kagiyama’s high score pushed him to go for the backflip.

“I think I’ve already set my mentality, my mindset, the layout that I had a few weeks ago,” Malinin said.

Malinin surprised, though, by not deploying his famed quadruple axel, and instead going for a backflip — marking the first time an Olympic skater has performed one in the 21st century. The first-ever Olympic backflip came from American skater Terry Kubicka at the 1978 Innsbruck Games, but it was banned from competition a year later, with the International Skating Union deciding it was too unsafe.

French skater Surya Bonaly did one at the 1998 Nagano Games, but it was still banned and she received a deduction for the move. The ISU unbanned it just two years ago.

Malinin told reporters Saturday that he loved the joy his backflip brought to the crowd at Milan’s Unipol Forum.

“It’s honestly just such an incredible, like raw feeling in this environment,” he said. “Once I do that backflip, everyone’s like, screaming for joy and they’re just out of control.”

“I think it’s really something that’s really bringing back the popularity of the sport, because the backflip is something that i’m sure a lot of people know the basics of what it really is,” he continued. “So I think just having that really just can bring in the non-figure skating crowd as well.”

The nine points Malinin earned with his second-place finish, though, was enough to finish out the qualification round and keep the U.S. in the top spot going into the team event finals, which now begin with the ice dance free dance.

Team USA is hoping for a repeat gold medal in the team event, which will conclude Sunday night. Though they’re the reigning Olympic champs, the U.S. initially took silver at the 2022 Beijing Games to Russia, who was later stripped of their gold medals due to Kalina Valieva’s doping scandal. Now, the U.S. is hoping to get the celebratory gold medal moment they missed out on in Beijing.

The American skater, who just missed making that 2022 squad, told PEOPLE last month that he’s ready for his starring moment.

“No matter how nervous I’ll be,” explained Malinin during a break from training, “I can just trust everything I do, all my practice and muscle memory, and go out there and deliver.”

For Malinin, skating is in his blood. His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, are two-time Olympians who competed for Uzbekistan and serve as his coaches. His grandfather Valery Malinin is a coach in Russia, too, and his younger sister is a nationally ranked junior skater.

The college student at George Mason University told PEOPLE that he skateboards and does art when he has time away from the ice, but truly, this is what he’s working for.

“I know how nerve-racking the Olympics can be, but I’m really excited,” he said. “I want to put my priorities into my career first and just see where that takes me.”

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.