Ilia Malinin

Ilia Malinin was born on December 2, 2004, in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the son of Russian-born Olympic Uzbekistani singles skaters Tatiana Malinina (1999 Grand Prix Final and inaugural Four Continents champion, ten-time national champion), and Roman Skorniakov (seven-time national champion).^[3] He is of Russian ethnicity.^[4] His younger sister, competing as Elli Beatrice Malinina and nicknamed Liza, was born in 2014 and is also a skater.^[5] When embarking on his skating career, he took the Russian masculine form of his mother's surname due to his parents' concerns that his father's surname would be too difficult to pronounce.^[6] His grandfather, Valery Malinin, is a former competitor for the Soviet Union and currently coaches skaters in Novosibirsk, Siberia.^[2]

Malinin attended George C. Marshall High School, where he graduated in 2023, and his favorite subject was physics.^[3][7][2] He currently attends the George Mason University School of Dance, as well as takes online math and economics classes.^[8][9] He is fluent in English and Russian.^[10] Malinin admires his mother's skating, as well as Evgeni Plushenko, Nathan Chen, and Mikhail Kolyada.^[10] He also looks up to Yuzuru Hanyu and Alexandra Trusova.^[11]

Malinin began skating at the age of six in 2010, under the tutelage of his parents in Reston, Virginia. When he was a child, he often preferred playing soccer to training in a cold arena but his grandfather advised his parents to be patient, "he'll (gain) his triple jumps, (and then) you won't be able to drag him away.”^[2] He went on to become the 2016 U.S. national juvenile champion, the 2017 U.S. national intermediate champion, and the 2019 U.S. national novice bronze medalist; he did not qualify for the 2018 U.S. Championships. Internationally, on the advanced novice level, Malinin is the 2018 Asian Open Trophy champion and the 2018 Golden Bear silver medalist.^[3]

Malinin made his junior international debut at the Philadelphia Summer International, winning gold ahead of U.S. teammate Nicholas Hsieh and Darian Kaptich of Australia. On the 2019–20 ISU Junior Grand Prix, he placed fourth at JGP United States and seventh at JGP Italy. He was unable to compete at the 2020 U.S. Championships due to injury but was awarded a berth to the 2020 World Junior Championships based on his early season results.^[10] At the World Junior Championships, he was 13th in the short program and 18th in the free skating, to finish 16th overall.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix, where Malinin would have competed, was canceled. He was instead invited to 2020 Skate America after the Grand Prix series was converted to semi-domestic events. Malinin placed a surprise fifth at Skate America after unveiling two new quadruple jumps – toe loop and Salchow – that he had learned during lockdown.^[12] As a result of his placement, he was invited to participate in the Las Vegas Invitational, where he helped Team Tara defeat Team Johnny.^[13] Malinin was unable to compete at the 2021 U.S. Championships after missing the qualifying competition due to an ankle injury.^[14]

With the resumption of the Junior Grand Prix, Malinin returned to international competition at the first edition of the 2021 JGP France in Courchevel, winning the gold medal despite making errors on both of his attempted quadruple jumps in the free skate. He called it "a struggle since I haven't competed in a year, but I think now that I'm back, things are starting going back to normal."^[15] At his second event, the 2021 JGP Austria in Linz, Malinin entered as one of the favorites for the gold medal and won with new personal bests in all segments. He landed a quadruple Salchow successfully in the free skate, while making an error on his quadruple toe loop attempt. With two gold medals, he qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final.^[16] However, the Final was later cancelled due to travel restrictions prompted by the Omicron variant.^[17]

Malinin finished the season at the 2022 World Junior Championships, which due to Bulgarian pandemic measures was delayed from early March to mid-April and relocated from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Tallinn in Estonia.^[18] He entered the event as the favorite for the gold medal based on his strong season.^[19] In the short program, he set a new junior world record of 88.99.^[20] He won the free skate as well, setting junior world records for that segment and for total score, taking the gold medal by a margin of almost 42 points.^[21]

Returning to the senior level at the 2021 Cup of Austria in November, he placed 13th in the short program, but rallied with a second-place free skate to win the bronze medal.^[22] Competing at the 2022 U.S. Championships with hopes of making the American Olympic team, he placed third in the short program. Second in the free skate with four quadruple jumps landed, Malinin won the silver medal, a result he said surprised him: "I definitely wasn't expecting to skate this good and especially place second."^[23] Malinin's placement meant that, per qualification criteria, the third berth on the Olympic team was to be decided between him and fourth-place Jason Brown. Ultimately, the committee chose Brown, a result that attracted some controversy.^[24] Malinin was instead assigned to make his World Championship debut later in the year. Brown praised him, saying: "U.S. figure skating is so lucky to have such a bright future with Ilia."^[25]

In advance of the 2022 World Championships, Malinin was sent to the International Challenge Cup to secure the required technical minimum scores. He was successful, winning the gold medal in the process.^[22] Competing at the World Championships in Montpellier, France, Malinin finished fourth in the short program with a personal best of 100.16, exceeding his previous best international score by almost 20 points. In the free skate, he made major errors on two quadruple jump attempts and dropped to ninth overall.^[26] He spoke afterwards of having put "more pressure on myself, just wanting to skate good so badly, and it kind of didn't work out."^[27]

Malinin opened his season at the 2022 CS U.S. Classic. He placed sixth place in his short program. His free skate, which was set to the Euphoria soundtrack and was choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne, consisted of five quad jumps, including a quad Axel, his first jump during the program, which made him the first skater to land the jump in an international competition.^[28][29] American figure skater Adam Rippon called Malinin's accomplishment "the craziest thing I've ever seen anyone do on the ice.”^[30] The judges awarded Malinin's quad Axel with a grade of execution of 1.0. His free skate also included a triple Lutz-triple Axel combination as the last jumping pass. He fell while attempting a quad Lutz but successfully completed all his other jumps. He came in first place in the free skate, earning a total of 257.28 points, coming in first place overall. Kévin Aymoz from France came in second place with 236.17 points, and fellow American Camden Pulkinen came in third place with 219.49 points.^[28][29][30]

At the Japan Open as part of Team North America, Malinin placed second in the men's free skate competition, earning a total of 193.42 points, just behind world champion Shoma Uno, who scored 193.80. He touched the ice on the final rotation of his quad Axel, so he was not able to land it successfully even though he accomplished it during practice, but "effortlessly"^[31] completed all four of his other quad jumps. Returning to the senior Grand Prix at the 2022 Skate America in Norwood, Massachusetts, Malinin fell on his quad toe jump but earned 86.08 points in his short program, which put him in fourth place. During his free skating program, he fell on a quad Lutz-triple Salchow combination, both parts of which were called as underrotated, but successfully landed four "solid"^[32] quad jumps, including a "beautiful"^[32] and "nearly perfectly"^[33] executed quad Axel jump, the first jump of the program, which earned him many positive GOEs.^[32] He also completed a quad toe loop, a quad Lutz and a quad Salchow in the first half of the program. After his error on the lutz combination in the second half, The Associated Press reported that "with an almost sheepish smile",^[33] he got back up from the ice and completed a triple flip-triple toe loop and a triple Lutz-triple Axel, which earned him a standing ovation from the audience.^[33] His spins were all level-4. He earned 194.29 points in his free skate, with a total score of 280.37, seven points more than the second-place finisher Kao Miura from Japan, putting him in first place overall.^[32][33] He was the youngest Skate America men's champion in the event's history.^[34] At his second event, the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, Malinin underrotated two of his jumps and stumbled out of his triple Axel, as a result placing second in that segment behind France's Kévin Aymoz. He revealed afterward that he was "a little bit injured" with a problem in his left foot.^[35] He won the free skate decisively, moving into first place and taking his second gold medal. These results qualified him to the Grand Prix Final.^[36][37] At the Final in Torino, Malinin stepped out of two jumps and slightly underrotated a third, as a result placing fifth in that segment with a score of 80.10, well back of the leaders. He indicated that he remained bothered by his injury and would not attempt the quad Lutz in competition.^[38][39] He rebounded in the free skate, finishing in second place in that segment, with only a small error on one slightly underrotated jump. He rose to the bronze medal overall, 2.41 points behind silver medalist Sōta Yamamoto of Japan. Malinin said his "goal is to definitely make sure that I'm able to be comfortable with my short program because, as of right now, it's been a bit messy."^[40][41]

Malinin entered the 2023 U.S. Championships as the gold medal favourite, and, after a season of difficulties in the short program, delivered a clean performance to rank first in the segment by 10.11 points over Jason Brown. He acknowledged afterward that "this season all the short programs have been really tough, and I think that we took every single one of them and thought about where we need to work and what to improve" to get to that performance.^[42] Malinin planned to attempt six quadruple jumps in his free skate, but fell on one and doubled two others. He placed second in that segment, behind Andrew Torgashev and only narrowly ahead of Brown, but won the gold medal on the strength of his short program showing.^[43] At the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Malinin placed second in the short program, with a score of 100.38 points behind Shoma Uno. He went on to attempt the most technically difficult free skate ever seen at a world championships with six quadruple jumps, landing three cleanly – including the quadruple axel, the first ever at an ISU championship event – earning 188.06 to place third in the free skate and third overall with a combined score of 288.44 behind Uno in first and Jun-Hwan Cha in second.^[2]

Malinin won gold at the 2023 CS Autumn Classic International, his first international appearance of the season.^[22] He was invited to compete as part of Team North America at the Japan Open, and won the men's segment, while the team finished second overall.^[44]

Beginning the Grand Prix at the 2023 Skate America, Malinin won the short program by almost seven points over Kévin Aymoz. He called the performance "one of the best all my career so far. I was so into the music and the performance that I was not aware of what was going around me."^[45] He landed all of his jumps in the free skate as well, setting new personal bests in that segment (206.41) and overall (310.47), his first instances of breaking the 200- and 300-point barriers internationally.^[46][47] Malinin went on to win the silver medal at his second Grand Prix event at the 2023 Grand Prix de France behind Adam Siao Him Fa of France and qualified for the Grand Prix Final in Beijing.^[48] At the 2023–24 Grand Prix Final in Beijing, Malinin successfully performed a quadruple Axel during his short program; this was the first time that any skater had performed this jump during that segment.^[49] During the free skate, Malinin successfully performed a quadruple loop, thus becoming the first skater to ever perform all six jumps as quadruples in competition. He won the event by a 17.30-point margin over reigning World champion Shoma Uno.^[50][51]

At the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, Malinin's score of 105.97 put him in third place following the short program, behind Shoma Uno (107.72) and Yuma Kagiyama (106.35) of Japan. In the free program, Malinin successfully performed six quadruple jumps, including two in combination, plus a triple Lutz-triple Axel sequence. He won the free program with a world record score of 227.79 (including a world record technical score of 137.18), earning the world title with a total score of 333.76.^[52]

Malinin opened his season at the 2024 CS Lombardia Trophy. He skated a clean short program, breaking the 100 point barrier in his very first competition of the season, and gaining an 8.57 point lead over Yuma Kagiyama. In the free skate he broke the 200 point barrier and the 300 point barrier overall, winning the gold medal by 21.01 points ahead of Kagiyama.^[22]

Going on to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix series, Malinin won the 2024 Skate America for a third consecutive time.^[22] One week later, he competes at the 2024 Skate Canada International, winning the event and securing a spot at the ISU Grand Prix Final. He became the first man to sweep the Skate America and the Skate Canada International in the same season in 25 years.^[53]

• Entered the Guinness Book of World Records after landing the first quadruple Axel^[54]
• Named to Time magazine's 2022 Time100 Next list^[55]
• ISU Skating Awards 2023：Special Achievement^[56]
• Honored with a Resolution by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors^[57]
• ISU Skating Awards 2024：Most Valuable Skater^[58][59]
• 2023–24 SKATING magazine Readers’ Choice Award^[60]

• Ilia Malinin at the International Skating Union
• Ilia Malinin at SkatingScores
• Ilia Malinin at U.S. Figure Skating
• Ilia Malinin at Olympics.com
• IliaMalininQuadG0d on Weibo (in Chinese)
• Ilia Malinin on Instagram