Ilia Malinin on his rise in skating, how Uno Shoma fuels him and why we haven’t seen the quad Axel more
The teen says he’s trying to strike the right balance with his artistry and big-jumping ways, while also making the case for the quad Axel to be worth more points. He speaks to Olympics.com exclusively.
Figure Skating
As Ilia Malinin exited the arena in Allen, Texas, after night one of Skate America in late October, a swarm of figure skating fans were waiting for the teenager, cell phones and Sharpies ready for respective keepsakes: Selfies and autographs.
The quad-jumping 19-year-old has catapulted himself to stardom less than two years after arriving on the international scene, punctuating his 2022-23 season with a bronze medal at the World Championships last March.
Clad in a baseball cap and Team USA jacket, he obliged his supporters, making the short walk from the venue to the athlete hotel, just across a parking lot. The moment showcased one of the reasons why Malinin hasn’t been intimidated by his meteoric rise: He welcomes the spotlight; thrives in it, even.
“It was all new to me last year, the fans, the press conferences,” Malinin tells Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “I didn't know how to handle it because it was all so much in one year.”
“But now I feel more comfortable... [the fans] give me a lot of motivation,” he said.
A big reason for Malinin’s success is because of his sky-high jumping skills.
The first – and still only – skater to complete a quadruple Axel in competition, he has surprised some of those fans by removing the historic jump from his programs this season, namely – he says – because the risk isn’t worth the reward on the scoresheet.
“I think that it's very disappointing for me that the base value is not where it should be for [the quad Axel],” Malinin explains, opting for a safer, cleaner presentation with a triple Axel.
“[I’m] the only one to do it successfully in competition,” he adds. “Knowing that I don't really do it anymore is kind of disappointing because I was doing it and now all of a sudden it's like, 'Why isn't he doing it?'”
Ilia Malinin and the quad Axel
So, why isn’t he doing it?
For Malinin, it comes down to points. A quadruple Axel’s “base value” (as in the starting number of points the jump is worth) is 12.5 points, one point higher than the next most difficult quad, the Lutz, which is worth 11.5 points. A triple Axel? That’s worth eight points.
Each element in skating is also scored with a Grade of Execution (GOE) from the panel of nine judges, from minus five (bad!) to plus five (so good!). A near-perfect triple Axel? That can score you some 11 or 12 points (eight points base value, then add on the GOE).
But an imperfect quad Axel? That’s going to score you just about the same. Last year, Malinin attempted five quad Axels in international competition, his 16.61 at Skate America garnering him the most points, while his 8.75 at Grand Prix Espoo was the least.
On average, he tallied 13.45 points for the jump. Meanwhile, he averaged a 9.11 on triples.
But his point: A jump only he's been able to complete should be rewarded more. And even if he's "only" doing a triple Axel, a clean triple will help his overall presentation scores - without as much risk.
“I think [the base value] should be very high,” Malinin said. “I have had this hype about me doing the quad Axel and now [I’ve] lowered it to get higher points if I have a better execution [on a triple].
“It’s a hard topic,” he adds. “I want to be known as ‘Quad God’ [Malinin’s nickname – and Instagram handle] because the quad Axel... it’s [become] my thing now. I have to decide which one fits better to the situation.”
“Thirty years ago, it was the triple Axel and I was him for that,” explains Brian Orser, the 1988 Olympic silver medallist and now a renowned coach.
“Maybe it's wise to start exercising some strategy,” he said of Malinin’s choice to opt out of the jump for the time being.
“That can be hard to get across to a young athlete. Ilia is smart. He has a lot of [jumping] ammunition. And this gives him a chance to showcase his choreography and some of that [other] stuff that he's been working on.”
Finding the right balance
Malinin, who has made his focus on his artistry well-known over the last year, can still do the quad Axel, as he showcased at Skate America during practice – as well at Japan Open in early October, which toes the line between official event and exhibition.
The jump could make a return to his free skate at this weekend’s Grand Prix Final, where he doesn’t need to worry about qualifying for another event – as he did during this Grand Prix Series season – though the podium could very well be on the line against the likes of Uno Shoma, Kagiyama Yuma and others in Beijing.
Changes can be slow in the sport, with the International Skating Union (ISU) needing an approval process to change allotted points for elements.
Should a jump that only one skater has been able to do be worth more than one point higher than the next “hardest” quad - the Lutz? It’s an intriguing question.
“It's fun; it's interesting,” Orser quipped about the quad Axel discussion, smiling. “It gives us something to talk about.”
Quad Axel or not for Malinin, the Grand Prix Final field also features the only man to win both his events this season, France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who beat out Malinin at Grand Prix de France for gold.
Ilia, who just turned 19 on 2 December, appears to be focused – quad Axel conversation included – on his process: Staying healthy; building experience; and becoming a more complete skater.
“I think one of the big things I really need to work on is to know how much I can push myself, but also not to overdo it in terms of actual competition goals,” Malinin explained. “I think one of those goals is having a really solid program layout [and having] it be as consistent as possible and to really have no mistakes. There’s no space for those minor errors that could possibly happen to me under pressure.”
It aligns with Malinin’s approach on the quad Axel – at least so far – this season: Consistency and clean programs.
Malinin: Uno Shoma ‘motivates me’
Uno, Malinin, Kagiyama and Siao Him Fa will be joined by Miura Kao of Japan and another Frenchman, Kevin Aymoz, at the Final this weekend. But it remains the two-time and reigning world champion Uno that Malinin is most inspired by.
After looking up to the Japanese star for much of his junior career, the two have become friendly competitors. This past off-season, Malinin joined Uno in exhibition skating shows, then the two re-connected at the aforementioned Japan Open.
“Watching him at Japan Open, it really hyped me up,” Malinin says. “His exhibition program is something he’s never done before, something out of his [usual] style and it looked really, really good.
“To see him working on becoming better and improving, that gives me even more motivation to try and take that [world title] away from him,” Malinin said. “It really motivates me to see he’s striving to become better.”
Back at Skate America, Malinin was debuting something not even his most ardent fans had seen before: A ‘Quad God’-monikered practice kit, complete with two stripes on either forearm of his shirt sleeve so when he crossed his arms to jump, four lines would appear across his chest: A quartet.
“It was really a fun idea to see how to get my name out there even bigger,” Malinin said. “And my right leg has four stripes on the bottom [of the pants]. That’s my landing leg. It’s a way to give all that power and energy to focus on that leg... it absorbs into those four golden stripes.”
Now fans wait and see if any of those quads – this weekend or beyond – will be the quad Axel.