Two short years after junior title, Ilia Malinin aims for maiden World Championships gold
The quad-jumping American teen is looking to become the first man in 25 years to win junior and senior titles within two years. He spoke exclusively to Olympics.com.
Figure Skating
Two years after he was World Junior champion, 19-year-old American Ilia Malinin is eyeing the top of the podium at this week’s World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal.
It would mark the fastest turnaround from junior to senior titles since Alexei Yagudin accomplished said feat between 1996 and 1998 – before going on to capture Olympic gold at Salt Lake City 2002.
Malinin, too, has golden Olympic dreams of his own.
“I really just [want to] be in the best shape, in the best condition, and to have my best arsenal of jumps in combination with spins, good artistry, good creativity, all of those things [and] combine it into one solid competition,” Malinin told Olympics.com after winning the Grand Prix Final in December.
That improved artistry has been a focus of Malinin’s for the last couple of seasons, and it helped him to that GP Final victory, which marks the biggest win of his career to date.
He enters Worlds as one of the leading contenders among two-time and reigning world champ Uno Shoma, 2021 medallist Kagiyama Yuma and European champion Adam Siao Him Fa.
Beating the likes of Uno, who he has long looked up to, as well as Kagiyama and Siao Him Fa, is something he wasn’t dreaming of when he won that junior world title two years ago.
“For me to come out on top [at the Final] is just something that, you know, two years ago... I would never think I'd be able to achieve that,” he admitted.
Ilia Malinin: The quad Axel in combination?
What has continued to set Malinin apart is his jumping prowess, including his one-of-a-king quadruple Axel, which he did in a short program for the first time in history at the Final. (He fell on it in the free skate, however.)
While the jump isn’t a sure thing in competition, he says he practises and lands it consistently in training. Recently, he posted a video of himself tackling on the quad Axel to a quad Salchow, doing the jump in combination.
It’s something he’s not far off from considering for competition, he says.
“I think that at this point in time with my quad Axel, it's really comfortable at that consistent level where I can try to see if I can land it following [another] jump,” he confirms. “And I think that during the off-season might be a good time for me to try out with that.”
While Malinin can appear to do it all with ease, the challenge remains for him, he says, including that decision to go for the jump in the short program in Beijing, in particular having left it out of his programs during the Grand Prix Series. (To be certain he would qualify for the Final, he says.)
“For me personally, the short program puts a lot more stress than the long program, because you only have a certain amount of elements in the short, and you have to nail every single one of them to really get a chance at having a good score,” he explains.
“But I was really glad that I was able to go for it and attack it fully and just land on my feet.”
His prowess extends beyond the quad Axel: So far in the 2023-24 international season, Malinin has attempted 20 quadruple jumps across six programs. His only outright fall? That aforementioned quad Axel in the GP Final free.
Uno, the reigning world champion, has taken notice.
“I don't think there [is] anyone who can jump a jump as difficult and with the same probability as Malinin for the time being,” says the Japanese star. “If you can’t jump, it’s impossible to beat Malinin.
“I think the people who are there now [in men’s skating] are pretty much out of options,” he adds.
Malinin inspired by Nathan Chen, he says
Before he won that World Junior title in March of 2022, Malinin made a different kind of splash at the U.S. Championships that January ahead of the Beijing 2022 Olympics, claiming the silver medal with two stirring performances in Nashville.
He finished second to Nathan Chen, marking the most recent – and perhaps last – time they would face off head-to-head.
“I didn't really get a chance to compete with him a lot,” Malinin says of Chen.
That hasn’t stopped Malinin’s quad-jumping ways to be compared to those of Chen (and, of course, another hero in two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru) - and Malinin has also worked with Chen mentors in coach Rafael Arutunian and choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne.
“[I] just feel that Nathan is also one of the really big role models for me,” he says. “He's definitely pushed me on the technical side and you know, when he's on the ice, I see that confidence in him. And I think that I kind of get that a little bit from him.”
It’s that kind of confidence that helped Chen to a trio of world titles from 2018-21, and also which Malinin will try to tap into in Montreal, a first world title on the line.
His rise over the last two years has been fast and furious. But, if you know Ilia Malinin, that’s the only speed he really operates at.