From a horary astrology perspective, I wanted to understand why Ilia Malinin, the favourite for gold in the men’s short program at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, failed in what many consider a true debacle.
He himself stated that everything was due to the pressure of having to live up to expectations. After the event, he said that the mistakes were “definitely mental” and added: “Honestly, I still haven’t been able to process what just happened, it’s a lot of mixed emotions […] it’s not like any other competition. It’s the Olympics, and I think people only realize the pressure in the nerves that actually happen from the inside, so it was really just something that overwhelmed me and I just felt like I had no control”.
I decided to analyse this today, after watching the performance a couple of hours ago. I cast the chart at the moment of the question and assigned him the 7th house, the Other. The cusp was in Capricorn, which makes Saturn the significator of Malinin.
The first problem already appears. Saturn is weight, discomfort, slowness, blockage, restraint. It is not a planet of easy victory, nor of luminous affirmation, nor of spontaneity. It is taciturn, melancholic, self-conscious, associated with anxiety and fear. It describes an internal state of heavy pressure. It also describes a body that does not feel light. In a discipline that demands Venusian lightness, fluidity and artistic expression, having Saturn as a significator is the opposite.
Even so, we could say that, if Saturn had been in Capricorn or Aquarius, it might actually have worked in his favour. Moreso considering that Saturn is also the planet of cold and ice, the conditions of the discipline itself. A well-dignified Saturn becomes a “good” malefic, capable of producing something like ice-strong nerves.
But Saturn was in Aries. Saturn is in detriment in this sign. Its nature is corrupted. Aries is fast, impulsive, cardinal Fire, oriented towards immediate action. Saturn is slow, cautious, calculated. There is a direct clash of temperaments between cold and hot.
Saturn in Aries is besieged, pressured to act quickly when its nature asks for time. This causes abrupt movements, nervous decisions, errors through excess tension. Speed, boiling blood and instinctive reaction are qualities Saturn despises. Bt they are the qualities demanded in a high-risk technical performance. Malinin’s body, skill and talent were, in that moment, under a Saturnian signature, but forced to operate in a martial environment. A heavy body obliged to act under the pressure of cardinal Fire.
Saturn is in the 9th house. The 9th house speaks of foreign places and long journeys. The Olympic Games took place in Italy, foreign territory. The Olympic context itself is different from any other competition. It is a larger, more charged stage. The 9th house also speaks of higher authorities, masters, people with recognised competence. It can signify coaches, judges, specialists, and the Olympic institution itself as a hierarchical structure. The weight of Saturn felt the heaviness and awareness of judgement and evaluation from his own team, coaches and other experts. The fact that Saturn has no applying aspects also reflects an internal isolation and sense of loneliness.
In medical astrology, the 9th house is associated with the thighs and hips. I am not claiming injuries or physical problems. I merely mention that the 9th house is associated with body areas related to propulsion, rotation and stability in figure skating. A debilitated Saturn in this can translate as rigidity, a sensation of weight, or lack of fluidity in the upper part of the legs.
The chart describes someone at a moment of enormous internal contraction, pressured by expectations, displaced from his usual ground, and forced to act under a dynamic that felt hostile to him. It was a Saturnian collapse under fire. He himself said it was mental. The chart shows that.
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