- Simone Biles has been cheering on Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
- The gymnast attended the free skate program on Feb. 13, where “Quad God” Ilia Malinin took two shocking falls, dropping from first to eighth place.
- Simone crashed Ilia’s interview with Access Hollywood to console him and give him some advice, Olympian to Olympian.
If anyone understands the pressures of performing for an international audience and coming back stronger from an online hate train, it’s the GOAT, Simone Biles. The most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time has been making her rounds at the 2026 Winter Olympics as she cheers on Team USA at different events—including the men’s singles figure skating competition on February 13, where “Quad God” Ilia Malinin suffered two shocking falls. The blunders, which garnered a physical reaction from Ilia on ice, brought the athlete from first to eighth place in the competition.
On February 17, he took some time to chat with Access Hollywood about the event on the grounds of the Milano Cortina Games. It wasn’t long until Simone crashed his interview to offer some advice and comfort after his devastating free skate performance. The athlete fell on a quad lutz, messed up during his triple toe loop, and fell again while trying to hit a triple axel.
During the interview, Simone admitted she was “enamored” by his routine as she watched from the crowd, her “jaw on the floor” when he took the fall.
“I couldn’t believe it. But obviously it is hard,” she shared. “I just wanted to scoop him off the ice and put him in my pocket and be like, ‘Come on, we’ll deal with this later.’”
Bringing the Quad God in for a hug, she added, “I feel like I've been on both spectrums, heartbreak and success, at an Olympic Games. I know how hard it is. I know the pressures that it brings, and he’s so young.”
Elsewhere in the interview, she turned to Ilia and offered him some advice. “Reset that mind and not think of it as not reaching the success that you wanted to have at the Olympics, but [as] a redirection. I think everything happens for a reason,” she suggested.
“I know exactly what it’s like. It’s hard, and you get in your head, especially when you’re skating, and you’ve done the skate so many times, like I know you have,” she told Ilia, suggesting that he “take care of yourself—mentally, physically. Feel all the feels from the Olympics. This is one of the best moments and times of your life, take all the pictures and then when you go home, you think about what’s next.”
Ilia seemed to remain in good spirits, as he told Access Hollywood correspondent Scott Evans, “Medals don’t define who you are as a person, and that’s something that I really want to realize. People really appreciate who you are instead of what you have done.”
The 21-year-old offered some similar comfort to Blade Angel Amber Glenn, whose triple loop didn’t go as planned during the women’s individual figure skating competition on February 17.
“I’ve told her that, you know, this is something that we all go through,” he dished to People. “It’s not always a pleasant feeling, but it’s something that we need to embrace, and we have to move on from no matter what, because no matter what happens, we always have to get up and go do it again.”
Truer words!!
