Ilia Malinin was 17 years old when he was excluded from the US figure skating team for the Beijing 2022 Olympics in favor of the more experienced Jason Brown, a 27-year-old Californian who had already competed in Sochi 2014. The decision caused quite a stir, although the truth is that the Malinin of that time was not the Malinin of today.
Today, at 21, he is probably the best skater to have ever existed. A two-time world champion, holder of the record for points (238.24) in the free program since November (335.30 in total, including the short program). The first skater to include seven quadruple jumps in a single routine and to execute a quadruple axel (a four-and-a-half revolution jump skated forward). Undefeated in 14 competitions since 2023...
Dubbed Quad God, the god of the quadruple, 1.73 meters tall and weighing 63 kilograms, born in Fairfax, Virginia on December 2, 2004, is the son of two Russian-born skaters settled in Uzbekistan: Tatiana Malinina (Novosibirsk, 1973) and Roman Skorniakov (Sverdlovsk, 1976).
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but beneficiaries of its skating school, they competed for Uzbekistan in the 1998 Nagano and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. By 1998, they were already in Dale City, Virginia as coaches, fleeing the post-Soviet difficulties of Tashkent. They married in January 2000 and had Ilia and Elli Beatrice. Ilia, now their disciple, has benefited from the two key factors in shaping personality and behavior: genetics and environment. Ilia had not planned to continue the family tradition in his early years. But at six, he put on skates, and at 13, he landed his first quadruple jump. There was no turning back.
We could say he is a grandson of the Cold War, just like his teammates, Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev, also descendants of the Slavic passion for ice and art, children of Russian parents who competed for the USSR. The blocks, led by the Soviet Union and the United States, measured their strengths and ideologies during that time to demonstrate the superiority of one way of life over the other. Political competition helped elevate sports worldwide.
The USSR and its Republics produced significant figures, especially in pairs skating, with Irina Rodina leading the way, alongside Alexander Zaitsev and Alexei Ulianov. The Americans, however, maintained a certain superiority with stars like Dick Button, the first to blend skating and show business in the US, the Hayes and David Jenkins, Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano...
Hamilton, the Olympic champion in Sarajevo '84, comments on Malinin: "He does ninja spins and those rotations, things that didn't exist before. It's as if he came from 50 years in the future to show us how far this sport has come." So much so that, according to Bonano, the Olympic gold medallist in Calgary '88, "those things that have not been done before may not be done in the future either."
The fall of the USSR brought forth a wave of figures nurtured from children in the newly dismantled system: Viktor Petrenko, Alexei Urmanov, Ilia Kulik, Alexei Yagudin, Evgeni Plushenko... opposed by, among others, Evan Lysacek and Nathan Chen. Today, Malinin is not battling against the reds. If anything, against the yellows, represented by the Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama, who outperformed him in the team short program at these Games. He had to surpass him in the free skate to secure the gold for the USA by just one point. He also outperformed him in the individual short program qualifier leading to Friday's free skate, where the medals are decided.
He plans a performance this Friday with seven quadruples, including a quadruple axel. And perhaps finishing with a backflip, a backward somersault landing on a single blade, that four-millimeter-wide steel thread. An eye-catching move that does not score points and was banned since 1977 for almost half a century. It is now allowed, and although it does not score, it also does not penalize.
Malinin attended Falls Church High School before enrolling at George Martin University. He is already a millionaire, having signed contracts with companies like Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Honda. Some publications try to delve into his love life. As far as is known, he lacks romances and flings. According to him, he has no time for such things. "My career comes first. Let's see what the future holds." A career he hopes to extend by participating in four or five Olympics. "I'll see how long I can endure."