Ilia Malinin’s recent performance at the world figure skating championships in Montreal has created a buzz in the sports.
The American teenager impressed the audience with a captivating routine set to music from the TV show “Succession.”
Ilia, performing last among 24 competitors, achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the second person ever to land six quadruple jumps in a single program after Nathan Chen.
However, he was the first to accomplish this with a quad axel, an extremely difficult jump, which the 19-year-old made the challenging routine look effortless.
Dressed in a monochrome, tuxedo-inspired costume, he showcased his power, form, and bravery, which defined his rapid rise in just two seasons at the senior level.
Despite having only 1.56 million viewers on NBC due to March Madness, the broadcast gained immense popularity online.
It got millions of views on social media and garnered numerous positive reviews across the internet.
The quadruple axel is the toughest move in figure skating because skaters spin an extra half-turn while facing forward.
Ilia is the only skater to land it in competition, doing so eight times since he was 17, two years ago at the US Classic.
The biggest crowd of the week at Centre Bell watched as Ilia performed the second part of his routine.
The audience gasped when he flawlessly executed a series of jumps, including a quad lutz-single euler-triple Salchow combo and a quad toe-triple toe-triple lutz-triple axel sequence.
The entire arena erupted into cheers and applause as he completed his final jumps with about 30 seconds left.
After his signature move, the raspberry twist, Ilia collapsed on the ice, overwhelmed with emotion, covering his face with his hands.
Ilia Malinin, who has won the last two US national championships and earned bronze at last year’s worlds, expressed his disbelief and shock at his performance.
“I’m still shocked. I can’t believe I did it,” said Ilia.
He acknowledged the possibility of either his best skate or a disastrous one, but he focused on staying calm and giving his all.
Ilia Malinin surpassed Nathan Chen’s world record free skate score with 227.79 points, NBC Sports noted.
He accumulated 333.76 points across two programs, leading Yuma Kagiyama from Japan by 24.11 points.
Reflecting on his performance, Malinin admitted that the past few weeks had been mentally and physically challenging.
After placing third in Thursday’s short program, he even considered not participating in the world championships.
The upcoming figure skating season is set to kick off in October with the Grand Prix Series.
Malinin hinted at attempting the first quintuple jump in competition and landing all six types of quads in one free skate.
“I guess we’ll have to find out; I’ll leave it for a surprise,” he told the crowd at the Bell Centre. “But you guys have to stay looking forward to next season.”
Ilia Malinin was born on December 2, 2004, in Virginia and comes from a family deeply rooted in figure skating, according to Sportskeeda.
His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov are Russian-born Olympic Uzbekistani singles skaters, and Tatiana holds the title of Four Continents champion.
He started his figure skating journey at the tender age of six in 2010 under the guidance of his parents.
Despite initially showing an interest in soccer, Malinin gradually gravitated towards free skating. This passion echoed predictions made by his grandfather.
His recent win follows his victory in the 2023-24 Grand Prix Championship.
He also secured bronze medals in the 2023 World Championship and the 2023-23 Grand Prix Championship.
Boasting an impressive record, Malinin holds four gold medals in the Grand Prix competition and has twice triumphed in the ISU Challenger series.
Additionally, he is the reigning US National Champion in free skating for 2023 and 2024.
Watch Ilia Malinin as he performs his incredible winning piece below:
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