Milan, Italy - US figure skating star Ilia Malinin was upstaged on his Olympic debut on Saturday as Japan's Yuma Kagiyama led the men's short program in the team event to keep the pressure on defending champions the US.

The 21-year-old Malinin, a two-time world champion, was below his best in his medley from The Lost Crown video game, scoring 10.67 points less than Kagiyama, the Olympic individual silver medallist from Beijing 2022.

"I'm pretty happy with what I did because that's only 50% of my full potential," said Malinin.

"My team event was to focus on myself and how I feel just overall," he continued

"I wasn't expecting to go out here and win the competition, that was not my goal here for the team event.

"I just felt excited to be here, come on it's the Olympics!"

Malinin, the self-styled "Quad God", opened with a quad flip, but followed with a hesitant triple Axel and underrotated his quad Lutz.

An acrobatic closing section featuring a backflip, aerial twist and a one-armed cartwheel did not impress the judges enough as he scored 98.00 – over 12 points off the personal best he achieved at last year's worlds.

"I feel really happy," insisted the skater from Virginia.

"I'm so glad to be here, this Olympic experience was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me so just being able to go out here is that's what I'm just grateful for."

Kagiyama (22) hit two quadruple jumps in his vibrant crowd-pleasing routine to a remix of "I Wish" which scored 108.67 points, slightly off his season's best.

But Malinin was in a similar position at this season's Grand Prix final when he trailed Kagiyama, before sweeping aside his rivals in the free skating final.

The USA have 34 points but Japan are just one point behind on 33. Hosts Italy qualified in third on 28, followed by Canada (27) and Georgia (25).

France, South Korea, China, Great Britain, and Poland were eliminated.

The top five teams now fight it out in the free skating finals, which continue with the ice dance later on Saturday.

The pairs, men's and women's free skates take place on Sunday.

The USA's world champion ice dancers, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, take to the ice later Saturday for the free dance a day after leading the way in the rhythm dance.

The pair have won a medal in every team event since it was introduced in 2014.

Japan took team silver four years ago in Beijing.