Grand Prix Final 2023: Ilia Malinin roars to victory, beating two-time world champ Uno Shoma for the first time
The American teen bounced back from a fall on his quad Axel in the free skate to land five quads, capturing his biggest career title. Japan's Uno and Kagiyama Yuma rounded out the top three.
Figure Skating
A fall on the quadruple Axel didn't deter Ilia Malinin - one bit.
The 19-year-old American bounced back from an error in the opening moments of his free skate to record a career-best score (207.76) and claim a first-ever Grand Prix Final title in Beijing, People's Republic of China, triumphing over defending champion Uno Shoma, 314.66 points to 297.34.
Uno's Japanese compatriot Kagiyama Yuma was third at 288.65.
"It's an incredible feeling to me," said Malinin, who would hit five other quad jumps in his long program. He had previously scored a career-best 310.47 at Skate America earlier this season.
The win is a first in Malinin's senior figure skating career over Uno, the two-time and reigning world champion
Malinin made history on Thursday (7 December) in the short program, becoming the first skater to successfully land the quad Axel in that segment of the competition. He told Olympics.com earlier this season that he avoided performing the jump this year due to - in his opinion - its base value not being worth enough (12.5 points), but chose to make history in the Chinese capital this week.
"I wanted to surprise everyone," he said.
He made different history on Saturday, landing a quad loop in competition for the first time and - in turn - making him the first man to land all six quads (the Axel, loop, Salchow, Lutz, toe-loop and flip) in history.
"There's a lot of mixed emotions here," he told reporters. "That first one is the mistake on the quad Axel. My goal here was to go for it in both the short and the long. It wasn't able to happen today, but I knew that I had to keep going in the program. I'm glad I did that."
About the quad loop, Malinin added: "That was the one that I was most concerned and worried about. It was the first time I was going for it [in competition]. A couple of weeks ago, my quad loop wasn't good at all. I'm really glad I was able to put it out here under pressure."
He becomes the first American man to win the Grand Prix Final since Olympic champion Nathan Chen captured this event three times in a row, 2017-19.
Uno Shoma: 'You have to jump as well as [Ilia]'
Even without a landed quad Axel, Malinin lived up to his "Quad God" nickname, collecting positive GOEs (Grades of Execution) across his five additional quads, including a quad Lutz-half loop-triple Salchow combination as well as a quad toe-triple toe - both midway through his Succession long program.
"It means a lot to compete against this field," Malinin said of the landed GP Final men's event. "They've pushed me to become better and better myself."
"I look at how I was able to achieve this under pressure... and am really happy with that result overall," he added.
Malinin - and family - also made different history: Twenty-five years after his mother, Tatiana Malinina, won the Grand Prix Final in 1999 (during the 98-99 season) her son was victorious at the same event.
For Uno, he's yet to hit full stride this season, getting another three "q" calls on his jumps - called for a quarter under-rotation on the flip, toe-loop and the back-end of a combination on a flip. The two-time individual medallist at the Olympics heads to Japanese nationals in Nagano in search of a sixth domestic title later this month.
"I didn’t feel right at all in warm-ups," said Uno, adding that "the result was fair. "I knew something was a little off so I slowed the skate down a bit. [Ilia] jumps better than anyone right now, and I think to beat him, you have to jump as well and as much as him. Unless you do, I don’t think there’s anyone who has a chance of beating him. That’s the reality."
The podium finish marked a successful first half of the season for Kagiyama, the 2022 Olympic silver medallist. He missed nearly all of last season due to injury.
"I was hurt last year but I managed to come back to this point," said Kagiyama, who recently began working with Olympic medallist Carolina Kostner. "It’s very gratifying that I’m able to perform at a level which people think is fantastic. I owe it to so many people.”
Adam Siao Him Fa of France rebounded from his sixth-place finish in the short to place third in the free, putting him fourth overall (278.28). Miura Kao of Japan was fifth (261.53), while the other French skater, Kevin Aymoz, had a nightmare free to end up sixth (219.91).