Ilia Malinin completes redemption arc with third straight world figure skating championship | Figure skating
Ilia Malinin won a third consecutive world figure skating championship on Saturday afternoon, completing a quick redemption a month after her Olympic collapse with a commanding free skate.
The 21-year-old American entered the final at Prague’s O2 Arena with a commanding lead after Thursday’s short program, where his personal best of 111.29 had put him more than nine points ahead of the field. This time there would be no outcome.
In last place, Malinin completed a free skate of 218.11 to finish with 329.40 points, comfortably ahead of Japanese rivals Yumi Kagiyama (306.67) and Shun Sato (288.54).
For Malinin, it was as much a performance focused on composure as it was on content. Known as the god of the quad for his unparalleled arsenal of jumps, he once again completed his program with difficulty, landing five quadruple jumps, including a quadruple toe-triple toe combination followed by a backflip at the end of the program, but it was the absence of the errors that defined his Olympic free skate that mattered most as he finished nearly 23 points ahead of the next best score.
“I really felt very pushed and loved by the crowd,” Malinin said afterward. “Every element I did, they were all behind me and I felt that throughout my program.”
A month ago in Milan, Malinin arrived as the heavy favorite for gold, but he fell twice and dropped to eighth in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic figure skating history. Afterward, he admitted the pressure consumed him, replaying his mistakes “24/7” in the days that followed.
Saturday, the tone was completely different.
This state of mind was evident from the start of the week. In the short program, Malinin attacked his opening quad flip and quad lutz – triple toe combination with conviction, drawing a roaring response from the crowd and signaling that the Olympic disappointment had not lingered.
“I expected to leave the long program in one piece and I really think that’s what happened,” Malinin later joked.
Behind him, Olympic silver medalist Kagiyama surpassed his personal best in the free skate against a selection from Puccini’s Turandot to finish second again, while Sato’s program to Stravinsky’s Firebird repeated his bronze medal at Milan Cortina. Canadian Stephen Gogolev placed fourth (281.04) ahead of France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who landed two quads but fell on a third and lost the medals to fifth place (271.56).
Estonian Aleksandr Selevko (270.42), in bronze after the short, slipped to sixth place. Americans Andrew Torgashev and Jacob Sanchez ranked 10th and 12th, respectively.
The absence of Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov, who, like Alysa Liu, skipped the world championships, left the focus on Malinin – and this time, the blond-haired American welcomed it without hesitation. The Virginia-born skater became the first man to win three consecutive world titles since former American star Nathan Chen, who did so in 2018, 2019 and 2021 after the 2020 competition was canceled due to the pandemic.
“It was really difficult and very hard,” Malinin told the crowd afterward. “But with you guys, I was able to get through it.”
