He’s been called the Quad God, skating’s great innovator, the next Olympic champion. On Saturday night, in front of a roaring crowd at TD Garden, Ilia Malinin made it official: he is once again the best figure skater in the world.
The 20-year-old American conjured another sensational free skate to close out the world figure skating championships, landing six quadruple jumps to claim his second straight world title. His season-best total score of 318.56 landed him a yawning 31.09 points clear of Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who captured silver with a personal-best routine, and Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who dropped from second to the bronze after a mistake-laden long program.
Malinin’s triumph capped a historic weekend for the United States, who won three of the four gold medals on offer for the first time ever at a figure skating worlds. He joined newly crowned women’s champion Alysa Liu and ice dance winners Madison Chock and Evan Bates atop the podium – a dominant showing that sends a clear message heading into next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan.
Skating last to I’m Not a Vampire by the American post-metalcore band Falling in Reverse, Malinin opened with a quadruple flip before landing the mythical quad Axel – the four-and-a-half-revolution that has proven beyond the reach of the sport’s most ambitious talents. From there, he added a quad loop, quad Lutz, quad toe and quad Salchow, the latter two in combination. Only a popped Lutz midway through the program kept him from attempting all seven quads.
The quad axel been landed only 15 times in competition after Saturday, all of them by the northern Virginia native, since he first pulled it off at the US Classic two years ago when he was 17.
The performance earned a standing ovation from another sellout crowd at TD Garden and extended Malinin’s win streak to nine consecutive events dating back to December 2023. His margin of victory was the second-largest in men’s history under the modern scoring system, trailing only Nathan Chen’s 47.63-point blowout in 2018.
Barring injury, it’s difficult to envision a timeline where Malinin won’t be the overwhelming favorite for Olympic gold 10 months from now in Milan.
Malinin, the son of former Olympians from Uzbekistan who relocated to northern Virginia, was controversially left off the US Olympic team in 2022 despite finishing second at nationals. Since landing the first quad Axel in competition later that year, he has redefined the technical ceiling of the sport – and continues to raise it.
Behind him, Shaidorov delivered a personal-best free skate with four clean quads to his Moonlight Sonata-Take On Me mashup to earn Kazakhstan’s first world medal in any figure skating discipline. The 20-year-old, who also won Four Continents in February, surged past Kagiyama after the Japanese star struggled to stay upright through his jumps.
Kagiyama, the reigning Olympic silver medalist and three-time world silver medalist, entered the free skate just 3.32 points behind Malinin. But falls on his Salchow and a step-out on the triple Axel during his Flamenco routine to Ameksa and Romanza derailed any shot at gold. His score of 278.19 was enough for bronze, his fourth major international medal.
Among the other Americans, Jason Brown delivered a clean, expressive program that earned him eighth place and a standing ovation. Andrew Torgashev finished 22nd after a difficult free skate, but together they ensured Team USA will send the maximum three men to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Saturday’s final segment of the championships was electric, but beneath the competition ran a current of remembrance.
On Wednesday night, TD Garden paused for a 20-minute tribute to the 28 members of the skating community who died in January’s plane crash near Washington DC. Many of the victims – young skaters, coaches and parents – were returning from a national development camp. Among them were several who trained at Malinin’s home rink in Virginia.
Full report to follow.
