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Ilia Malinin, U.S. figure skating's new star, caps a perfect year and eyes Olympic glory

8 December 2024Last Update :
Ilia Malinin, U.S. figure skating's new star, caps a perfect year and eyes Olympic glory

At the end of his free skate Saturday, Ilia Malinin sprawled out on the ice, eyes closed, soaking it all in. The man known as the “Quad God” had just unleashed a series of quadruple jumps — including the quad Axel, a jump that no one else has ever landed — and even a backflip in his typical spectacular style.

The routine had included a fall and several other miscues, but it didn’t matter. Malinin, the rising American who turned 20 on Monday, easily beat Japanese rival Yuma Kagiyama to win the men’s singles competition in the Grand Prix Final, finish an undefeated 2024, and further cement his status as a superstar in the making.

Perhaps the only thing not going Malinin’s way right now is that the Olympics are in 14 months instead of two.

Since the 2022 Beijing Games, Malinin has become the new force in men’s figure skating, his win Saturday completing a perfect calendar year that included the World Championship gold medal and has made him the sport’s clear No. 1, just over a year before the 2026 Olympics begin in Milan, Italy.

Malinin started with a dazzling short program on Friday, opening up a near-12-point lead over Kagiyama, the silver medalist at worlds behind Malinin. In Saturday’s free skate, Malinin unleashed a barrage of quads — the Axel, Lutz, Salchow, toe loop, loop and flip — and a crowd-pleasing backflip near the end to claim another major title. He finished with a combined score of 292.12, besting Kagiyama’s 281.78. Japan’s Shun Sato took third with a 270.82.

“I had this idea and this goal that I wanted to achieve here, and I was able to blow it out of the park,” Malinin said in the arena after the win.

The Grand Prix Final is the culmination of figure skating’s annual Grand Prix series, inviting only the top six skaters or pairs in each discipline. It’s among the most prestigious worldwide titles in the sport, after the Olympics and the World Championships.

The win capped a stellar weekend in Grenoble, France, for the U.S. with three titles. Earlier Saturday, Amber Glenn won the women’s competition and Madison Chock and Evan Bates — the two-time defending world champions — won the ice dance for the second straight year. The Americans also took a gold and two silvers in the junior competition.

Malinin was born and raised in Virginia. His parents, Roman Skorniakov and Tatiana Malinina, are both former Olympic figure skaters with Russian and Uzbekistani heritage. They relocated to the U.S. and live in Vienna, Virginia, where Malinin learned to skate at the facility where his parents coach. He currently attends George Mason University.

Malinin might already be a household name for casual Olympics fans if not for a decision in 2022 that kept him off the U.S. team in Beijing.

At the U.S. Championships that year, one month before the Olympics, Malinin — who had just turned 18 — finished a surprising second place behind Nathan Chen, making a strong case to be named to the team. But the selection committee — not required to choose based on the results alone — instead opted for experience and picked former Olympians Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown — the third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively, at nationals — to join Chen in Beijing and made Malinin the first alternate.

It worked out for the U.S. — they won team gold after Russian skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified and her score subtracted — but it meant Malinin would have to wait for his Olympic debut.

In the time since, he has skyrocketed to the top of the sport. After the Olympics, the Americans sent Malinin to the 2022 World Championships, where he finished ninth. Then he competed in the World Junior Championships and won gold for his first major victory.

From there, he competed on the senior circuit full-time. The 2022-23 season brought gold at the U.S. Championships and bronze at worlds and the Grand Prix Final, as well as his first successful quad Axel. Now, in 2024, he’s been unbeatable — World Championships, Grand Prix Final, U.S. Championships — gold in all.

Before his arrow-shot up the rankings, Malinin gained notoriety for an unprecedented move. Until Sept. 15, 2022, no figure skater had landed a fully rotated quadruple Axel — four full spins in the air off the Axel jump, which is considered the hardest in the sport and starts forward-facing, necessitating an extra half rotation to complete.

That changed when Malinin unleashed it at an event in Lake Placid, N.Y.

He’s repeated the feat several times since and goes by the nickname “Quadg0d” on Instagram in honor of the accomplishment. He’s said in interviews he’s considering trying a quintuple version of the jump.

It’s his signature move, but far from the extent of his skill. Malinin’s athletic routines have produced massive scores — including a world record free skate at this year’s World Championships. He wasted no time breaking out a backflip in competition this October after a ban on the move — in place since 1977 — was lifted earlier this year.

Malinin finished 2024 with seven wins in seven events. He hasn’t finished out of the top three in any event since that 2022 World Championships he competed in after missing out on Beijing. And the next major event is on his home turf — the 2025 worlds are in Boston from March 23-30.

There’s still another year of competition until the Olympics begin in Milan in February 2026, time for another top contender like Kagiyama or France’s Adam Siao Him Fa — the bronze medalist at last year’s worlds who missed this Grand Prix Final with an injury — to chase Malinin down. But the American enters 2025 as the clear No. 1 in the sport.

Related reading

  • Amber Glenn wins U.S. women’s figure skating’s biggest title in 14 years

(Photo of Ilia Malinin during Saturday’s free skate: Laurent Cipriani / AP)

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