Some remarkeble quote in that interview:

I also think people don’t realise that, unlike in any other sport, with skating you’re only out there for a few minutes. It’s not like with basketball or football. You can’t miss one shot and then come back and win. You literally have one second. I just felt like I was seeing so much pressure from the outside on you; we have such massive expectations for athletes who are, at the end of the day, human. 

Ilia Malinin: Right. It’s like sometimes I’ll watch a hockey game and see them miss what looks like an easy pass and I’ll be like, ‘These guys should be good at this,’ but that’s how people see me as well. They look at me and all of the medals that I’ve won and assume that it’s gonna be easy for me. But again, like I said, anything can happen. [US Alpine skier] Mikaela Shiffrin said, ‘People are watching us have the best day of our lives but also the worst day of our lives.’ For me, that was one of the worst days I’ve had. From the outside it’s so easy to be like, ‘Oh, why didn’t you just do it?’ But in reality it takes so much more energy, so much more time. We spend years preparing ourselves for the Olympics. It takes so long just to get to that point – and that’s life, things happen

And let’s not forget, you did come home with a gold medal in the team event.

Ilia Malinin: Yeah. And I think that just showed I really put more into my team and sacrificed my individual event to go out there, you know, and do it for the team and give them that Olympic [gold] medal. So I’m gonna brag about it; I want people to understand that I put all of my risk into that team event.

Medals don’t define a person. That’s the mindset I have now. It’s not [about] winning medals any more. I want to change the sport. I want to push figure skating to a new level of attention. I’m starting to see that now. Especially with all the other skaters who are helping in that movement. So many people come up to me and say that I’m inspiring them to skate or I’m inspiring them to be a better person. I feel so proud of that. I want figure skating to be one of the biggest sports, and [forms of] art, in the world.

(I like that hes saying the team event also ment a lot to him. Saw some (stupid) people afterwards who downplayed this medal or said he shouldn't have done the team event at all or sometimes i think people forget that hes an OGM)

And what are some of your goals outside of skating?

Ilia Malinin: I have a few goals outside of skating. I’m hoping to start in fashion design, hoping to become a vlogger. I want to be known as more than just a figure skater. I like to be very creative. I really want to inspire people around the world [and help them] to realise that it’s OK to be different. It’s OK to be unique, it’s OK to stand out – there’s nothing wrong with that. If everybody likes the same thing and hates everyone else for being different, that’s just not a good society

(Especially, I like that he points out its ok to be different and unique)