MILAN — Ilia Malinin skated an impressive, if unsteady, long program on Sunday evening in Milan to elevate the U.S. figure skating squad to the Olympic gold medal in the team event. Team USA, which also won team gold in Beijing in 2022, narrowly beat an elegant Team Japan by just one point in a thrilling, three-day contest to open the Winter Games’ marquee sport.

Before a full crowd at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, with tennis legend Novak Djokovic and NBA great Pau Gasol in attendance, Malinin completed five quadruple jumps and a one-footed backflip as part of his free skate. Despite stumbling on a quad lutz jump and forgoing a quad axel for a triple, Malinin’s score of 200 points was enough to hold off a clean and graceful program by Japan’s Shun Sato for the overall gold. 

Host nation Italy won the bronze, capped by Matteo Rizzi delivering the skate of the night with a performance to the Interstellar soundtrack that drove the audience to chant “Italia!” before he had even finished.

The team figure skating event, which concluded around 5 p.m. Eastern time, was an audience hit and may very well have given NBC a major ratings boost leading into Sunday night’s Super Bowl. And at least one member of Team USA is committed to stay up into the night and watch the game—Danny O’Shea, a pairs skater and the U.S. team captain, was wearing a black T-shirt that said, “I [heart] Drake Maye” under his team jacket in the kiss-and-cry section to show his Patriots fandom.

“Honestly, it’s going to be an amazing day, because I just won an Olympic gold medal, and then I’m going to go watch Drake Maye win the Super Bowl,” said O’Shea, whose parents are from Boston.

Most skaters, however, will likely aim to get their rest. The team event effectively doubles their energy demand in an already high-stress competitive event; Malinin said he performed at only 50% of his capacity on Saturday night.

“I had to sit around for a few hours thinking about why that happened yesterday in the short program,” Malinin said Sunday after securing the win, saying he underestimated “the impact of the Olympic environment.” Wearing a gold medal, though, “brings me so much joy and energy and, of course, the confidence and motivation leading up to my individual event.”

O’Shea echoed Malinin’s sentiments, saying, “I definitely think the ice dancers would have appreciated” an extra day off between the team competition and the ice dance event, which begins Monday. “I’m not sure how capable the Olympics may be with scheduling,” he said, adding jokingly, “I’ll talk to the IOC about it.”

Nonetheless, the team event showcased figure skating at its best: a battle between the technical sophistication of the “Quad God” Malinin with the artistry of three-time women’s world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan and the pure emotion of Italy, which won its third-ever Olympic medal in the sport.

Rizzo said he couldn’t hear the music by the end of his program. “I could just hear the screaming of the people, the screaming of my team, my emotion. I was screaming, too. It was amazing.”

Toward the end of the night, after the medal ceremony and hours of interviews with television, newswires and print reporters, the skaters were asked where they might keep their newly won medals.

“Around my neck,” O’Shea said. “For as long as possible.”