In my last post, we explored how Alysa Liu’s triumphant return to the ice offered a masterclass in managing burnout and studying on your own terms. But the 2026 Winter Olympics also gave us a stark, painful lesson on the other side of that coin: what happens when the immense weight of expectations finally cracks you.
I’ve spent decades guiding aspiring lawyers through the crucible of the bar exam. I’ve seen brilliant students crumble under test anxiety and average students soar through sheer grit and strategy. And few events outside the legal world have offered such a devastating parallel to a test-day meltdown as what we just witnessed in Milan.
Ilia Malinin, the undefeated “Quad God,” faced insurmountable expectations. Commentators pronounced he was destined for individual gold. Yet, in his free skate, the unthinkable happened. He fell twice. He “popped” jumps, turning planned quads into singles and doubles. One of the most technically gifted skaters on the planet had a catastrophic meltdown on the ice, dropping from first place to finish eighth.
My heart went out to him. And as a longtime bar exam tutor, I immediately saw parallels to what so many of you are facing right now. Malinin didn’t suddenly forget how to skate. The pressure got to him. His mental game collapsed, and his physical performance followed.
The bar exam is your Olympics. It’s the culminating event you’ve trained years for. And just like Malinin, your success isn’t just about what you know; it’s about your ability to perform under immense psychological weight.
Here are three crucial lessons future attorneys must learn from Malinin’s heartbreaking performance to ensure you don’t suffer a similar fate on test day.
1. Don’t Let One Mistake Derail Your Entire Performance
The most devastating part of Malinin’s program wasn’t the first mistake; it was the chain reaction that followed. After that initial error on his trademark quad Axel, you could visibly see the air go out of him. He lost his nerve. Subsequent jumps, ones he could do in his sleep, became erratic and tentative. He was skating scared, trying not to lose, rather than skating to win.
The Bar Exam Lesson: You will get questions wrong on the MBE. You will blank on a sub-issue in an essay. This is a certainty. The difference between passing and failing is how you react to that inevitable stumble.
If you spend the next ten questions ruminating on the one you just guessed on, you are compounding the error. You are letting one missed point turn into ten. You must develop a “short memory.” Acknowledge the mistake, take a deep breath, and snap your focus entirely to the next question on the page. The most important question on the bar exam is always the one you are currently answering.
2. Stick to Your Training: Don’t Invent New Strategies on Game Day
Malinin is famous for his daring, high-risk jumps. But in the cauldron of Olympic pressure, when things started to go wrong, his technique abandoned him. He “popped” jumps—a subconscious safety mechanism where the body refuses to commit to the full rotation of a difficult jump. He stopped trusting the muscle memory that had served him so well in practice.
The Bar Exam Lesson: I’ve seen students get to the essay portion and suddenly decide to abandon IRAC because they feel panicked for time. I’ve seen them try to speed-read MBE questions in a way they never practiced. This is a recipe for disaster.
Trust your preparation. If you’ve spent two months outlining essays a certain way, do not change it on test day because your nerves are screaming at you. If your strategy for property questions involves diagramming deeds, draw the diagram. Panic will tempt you to take shortcuts. Your training is your anchor. Hold onto it tight.
3. Managing Expectations is Just as Important as Managing the Law
The narrative around Malinin was that individual gold was a foregone conclusion. He wasn’t just competing against the other skaters; he was competing against a mythical version of himself that could do no wrong. That weight is crushing. When reality didn’t match the perfect script in his head, he couldn’t cope.
The Bar Exam Lesson: Stop telling yourself you need to get a top score. Stop worrying about what your classmates are doing or what your family expects. Your goal is not perfection; your goal is competence. All you need is a passing score to make this bar exam your last.
By lowering the stakes from “I must be perfect” to “I need a passing score” you relieve immense psychological pressure. This frees your mind to actually perform at its best.
Ilia Malinin is an incredibly talented athlete who had a terrible day at the worst possible time. He has already stated he will learn from this failure and bounce back. And you can learn from his mistakes, as well.
Don’t let the pressure become your primary opponent. Train your mind just as rigorously as you train your knowledge of torts and contracts. Learn to shake off mistakes, trust your proven methods, and manage the weight of expectations.
If you feel like the mental aspect of bar prep is your weak link, you’re not alone. It’s often the deciding factor. My practice focuses not just on teaching the law, but on building the strategic and psychological fortitude needed to pass.
Don’t leave your performance to chance. Contact me to learn more about my personalized tutoring programs and how we can build a battle plan that ensures you perform at your peak when it matters most.
Photo Credit: Ilia Malinin during a practice session at the 2026 Winter Olympics by Andrew Schutzman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.