Why Olympic star Ilia Malinin might revolutionize figure skating
MILAN — Legends gather. Olympic champions and world champions – the icons of American figure skating – come together for major competitions and watch the current generation of skaters take the sport to new heights. Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano to name a few, and they, just like the thousands of fans who haven’t competed under the championship spotlight, are also getting nervous.
That is, until Ilia Malinin skated.
“What he does is simply legendary,” said Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion. “It will change the generation, the curve, the history and the future of our sport.”
Malinin is the only person to land a quadruple axel in international competition. He first did it at the age of 17; he is now 21 years old. He was the first person to land seven quadruple jumps in a single program. Well ahead of his competitors, Malinin could fall several times while winning individual gold at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.
But winning is not enough for this prodigy.
He wants to reset figure skating, enticing viewers to come for his historic quad-axel, then making them stay for his fearless performance quality.
“All of us skaters always have a reason to skate,” Malinin said, “And my reason is I love to perform. I love to push myself to the limits and just see where I can take the sport.”
Malinin hasn’t lost a competition since November 2023. If he completes this seemingly predestined mission to win individual gold (the men’s competition begins Tuesday with the short program), it will be the first time the United States has won consecutive men’s Olympic titles since 1984 (Hamilton) and 1988 (Boitano).
“Even though he’s ‘the Quad God,’ I don’t think he wants to be known only as that,” choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne said of Ilia Malinin. “I think he wants to give people a show, and I think he wants them to feel.”
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Boitano has been following the search for the next great American figure skater for decades. Often, even the most promising young prospects disappear. Sometimes they experience growth spurts. Sometimes the gap between simply learning skills and implementing them is too big to bridge. Then there is the pressure of becoming champion.
When Michael Weiss, a two-time Olympian and two-time world bronze medalist, first told Boitano about a talented skater in Virginia who wanted to learn how to do a backflip on the ice, Boitano made a note to pay attention to the child, who had not yet started doing quad jumps regularly.
Boitano watched with interest as Malinin slowly ascended. Observing whether Malinin’s skating and consistency would change as he grew, Boitano knew the self-proclaimed “Quad God” was real once Malinin put multiple quads into his programs after his teenage years.
Malinin was 17 when Boitano’s group of figure skaters released a video of the world’s first quad axel. At nearly 1.70 meters tall, Malinin is now the tallest American skater in the men’s singles event in Milan. But he remained light and strong. With impeccable technique learned from his parents Roman Skorniakov and Tatiana Malinina – both former Olympic figure skaters – Malinin has all the physical elements necessary to redefine his sport.
“It’s a perfect storm to be able to do what Ilia does,” said two-time Olympian and NBC Sports analyst Johnny Weir.
1. Ilia Malinin trains at Great Park Ice ahead of the Milan-Cortina Olympics. 2. Ilia Malinin skates during training. 3. Choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne coaches Ilia Malinin while he trains at Great Park Ice. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
The Axel jump is the only one in figure skating that begins with a forward takeoff. Because skaters land backwards, each axel requires an extra half-rotation more than its name suggests, making it by turns the most difficult jump on ice. Other skaters tried the quad axel before Malinin’s mastery. Nathan Chen, Malinin’s predecessor who landed five quad jumps to win the 2022 Olympics, was training in the quad axel before the Beijing Games. Yuzuru Hanyu, who won Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018, attempted the vault in Beijing but fell.
Simply attempting quad jumps gives skaters an advantage in points because its base value is very high. This creates a greater margin for error if a skater does not execute the skills perfectly. Even without his quad axel and using only three quad jumps in his free skate at the U.S. championships in January, Malinin had a base value for his technical elements that was more than 14 points higher than the runner-up.
But aerials weren’t the only reason for her 57-point victory at the national championships. His component score, which rates a skater’s composition, presentation and skating skills up to 10 points each, was also higher than that of all other competitors.
“Even though he’s ‘the quad god,’ I don’t think he wants to be known just by that name,” said Shae-Lynn Bourne, a three-time Olympic ice dancer who has choreographed for some of the sport’s most respected champions and performers, including Hanyu, Chen and Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva. “I think he wants to give people a show, and I think he wants them to feel.”
Ilia Malinin has a “wild, effortless quality” to her skating, says a former skater. It is not a refined, repeated style that is generally held up as the artistic ideal of the sport.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
This is the fourth season that Malinin and Bourne have worked together. The challenges of an Olympic season are different, however, she said. Nobody wants to be wrong. They want the audience and the judges to like the show. But Malinin, who was nervous about choosing his music or risking not being appreciated, Weir recalls, focused on two of his most personal programs.
“We did it, what do you feel in your soul?” » Bourne said. “How does your voice feel? What should you say? And how do you want to be remembered?”
Skating through a short program about a warrior and his self-narrated free skate that describes his personal struggles to advance in the sport, Malinin doesn’t tell stories with just his famous jumps. He has what Weir calls a “wild, effortless quality” to his skating. It is not a refined, repeated style that is generally held up as the artistic ideal of the sport.
This is why his fellow skaters fell under his spell.
“I feel like I’m stuffed with Ilia,” said Adam Rippon, a 2018 Olympian. “I’m totally sold, too, because he loves what he does so much. … He’s absolutely fearless, and I think that’s what really makes him so amazing. We can tell people, ‘Oh, this is the hardest thing ever,’ and it’s like, ‘OK, cool.’ But the reason I fell in love with skating, and I think the reason so many people fell in love with skating, is the performance. And one thing that Ilia will absolutely do, on top of everything that he’s going to do that is incredible, incredible and technically groundbreaking, he’s going to put on an incredible performance.
Malinin has embraced his role as an ambassador for the sport. While Chen bristled at being given the nickname “Quad King,” Malinin leans into his alter ego. He printed personalized products. “Quadg0d” is part of his Instagram account, where he has 363,000 followers amid a growing following.
Malinin has no plans to relinquish the crown anytime soon. He said he wants to compete for at least three Olympic cycles. That will give him plenty of time to conquer another frontier for the sport: five rotations.
Ilia Malinin wants to compete for at least three Olympic cycles and conquer another frontier for the sport: five rotations.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
The “straight” could easily become a reality for Malinin, said coach Rafael Arutyunyan. The famous aerials expert who has worked with Chen and other stars including Rippon, Kwan and Mao Asada has been helping Malinin’s parents with in-person and remote coaching since 2021. When Malinin’s father even wondered if his son could land the quad axel, he worked with Arutyunyan to achieve it in just a few months.
As he approaches his 50th year of training, Arutyunyan will continue to put his faith in the “Quad God.”
“There is always a ceiling,” Arutyunyan said. “But you can break a ceiling.”
