The following story appeared in the November issue of SKATING magazine.
Imagine beginning your first full Olympic quadrennium with a never-done-before quadruple jump, launching yourself into the history books while simultaneously announcing your intention for the 2026 podium in Milano Cortina, Italy.
And doing so in the same venue as the 1980 Olympic "Miracle on Ice" ... a new miracle made, some four decades later.
It's the sort of arrival only Ilia Malinin could create.
"It felt really good," a breathless Malinin, still just 17, said as he walked off the ice in Lake Placid, New York, following that quad Axel-fueled free skate at the U.S. International Classic in September. (He won gold, by the way.)
"When I'm practicing [the quad Axel], it's pretty easy for me to figure out how to get the right timing to have it be a good attempt. [But] to do it in competition is a different story because you have nerves and pressure that can get in the way of that."
What if we told you that nerves and pressure are two things Malinin thrives on, however, and that the son of Russian-Uzbeki skaters and coaches, born and raised in Virginia, would like nothing more than to perform that quad Axel on the sport's biggest stages in the coming years, with all the nerves and pressure that come with them.
"I'm confident," Malinin told SKATING magazine in an interview in August. "A lot of people say that I'm cocky, but for me, it helps me think better. If I say, 'I'm the best skater,' to someone, that makes me want to work. I want to become that. It motivates me. If I want to become an even better skater, I have to say [out loud] that I want to be that, or that I am that already. I want to reach that goal."
The goals are many for Malinin: a national title, success on the senior Grand Prix circuit and at Worlds, and the Olympic podium. Yet while the talk may be bold, the approach is workmanlike. He went from his breakout performances at the end of last season to his first-ever tours in Japan this past summer, then right back into the training rink to prepare for what was to come.
"I've just been skating my programs every day," he said. "I feel like they are the best programs I've had so far in my career. I love skating them and I'm looking forward to skating clean as much as possible in competition."
Team Malinin: A new, wider scope
Part of the reason for the excitement around Malinin's programs (which he succinctly describes as "cool") is that his free skate marks the first time he's worked with Shae-Lynn Bourne, the renowned choreographer, who was brought into the fold by seasoned coach Rafael Arutunian, whom Malinin sees every few months in Irvine, California, for check-ins.
Malinin and his parents/coaches, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, knew his program components needed a boost as he matures into a senior skater over the next four years. So Arutunian made the call to Bourne.
"It's wonderful that Ilia feels driven and motivated to develop the full package," Bourne said of teaming up with him. "He has a true passion to skate, jump and express himself on the ice. That — combined with the experience and maturity he'll gain over these next couple of years — will make for something very exciting."
How does Bourne describe Malinin's on-ice vibe? "I would go with the word 'electric,'" she said. "Ilia really feels the character and right from the start he connects to the audience with a calm, cool, yet electric soul."
"What is good to see is that Ilia has really addressed a lot of areas of his skating, not just landing the quads," U.S. Figure Skating's Senior Director for Athlete High Performance Mitch Moyer said at Champs Camp in late August. "[I've] seen the quad Axel. The spins are better, the choreography and programs are more sophisticated and developing well."
It doesn't take too much imagination for avid skating fans to see the page from the Nathan Chen playbook that the Malinin camp is turning to, with Malinin having gone to train alongside Chen over the last 18 months.
"A couple of years ago we wanted him to see how Nathan trains, his work ethic and everything," said Skorniakov, his father, of the Irvine connection. "I think when Ilia saw that, the training part, it made a big impact on him."
Now it's about rounding Malinin into the kind of skater he wants to become — bells, whistles and quad Axels included.
No longer playing second fiddle
It is quite possible that Malinin's booming arrival at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville in January will mark the lone marquee event in which he will compete alongside Chen — and the same could go for Jason Brown and Vincent Zhou, a pair of two-time Olympians like Nathan.
"I was looking forward to spending some time and get to skate with [Nathan, Jason and Vincent]," Malinin said. "If I'm being honest, the one time I got to skate with Nathan was perhaps at U.S. Championships. I guess in a way it's motivating me because I feel like a lot of people are watching me. I'm pushed by that."
From Nashville to Lake Placid, Malinin clearly has a knack for spotlight situations; the growing list also includes the 2022 World Championships in Montpellier (he was fourth after the short program) and World Juniors in Tallinn, Estonia, where he won gold by 40-plus points.
"Last year really helped me," Malinin said, though he has previously voiced frustration with not being tapped for the Beijing Olympic team. "I got used to a lot of new competitions and the feelings that come along with them. The season definitely gave me a good head start for what I'm going to face this season and get into the right mindset for it."
The summer of 2022 helped further that mindset, as Malinin made his first trip to skate in Japan as part of two tours — Dreams on Ice and The Ice — where he was alongside skaters like Chen, Brown, Matteo Rizzo, Kevin Aymoz, Junhwan Cha, Daniel Grassl and many others.Â
Malinin forged a strong friendship with Grassl, while also soaking up the knowledge of all those experienced skaters, including American veterans Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
"I learned mostly that I'm going to have a lot of different challenges happen in my career and I'll have to be ready for everything ... that I'll have to prepare for the worst," Malinin said, reflecting on his tour experiences.
"It showed me that I'm going to have a lot of experiences in a lot of places that I'm not familiar with in my career. I have to take those in. I'm going to be at a lot of new, big competitions this season that I've never been to before. I have to get used to it."
Milano Cortina on the mind
Some 1,200-plus days separate Malinin's historic quad Axel and the pinnacle of another quad: the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
While he has in the past expressed a desire to climb onto the podium at those Olympics, Malinin is looking through a different lens when he looks to his skating future — a more process-driven one.
"I think one of the main goals [this quad] is going to stay in the best shape possible," he said. "I think it will be about [maintaining] my choreography and jumps, which I think will help me at the beginning of each season, too."
With Bourne on the choreography beat and Arutunian on jump watch, the focus for Malinin and his parents day to day is about Ilia only getting better — and not focusing on what is going on around him.
He said of the 2026 Games, "I don't think about it in a way where I am worrying about what other skaters are doing. I have to focus on myself. Sometimes it pushes me. I see other people trying things. If some of these other [active skaters] are going to try and go for the 2026 Olympics, then I know I also have to put the work in to try and go there and get a good result there, too."
His 2021–22 season — with U.S. Championships, Worlds and World Juniors in mind — was a marked jump-start. And one that surprised even Malinin himself.Â
"I turned into a whole different skater in just a couple of months ... that was pretty impressive for me," he said. "I think that this last year has been one of the big peaks. I wasn't expecting to get my jumps so quickly; that surprised me. Executing [those jumps] in competitive programs, that also surprised me. I think I pulled off some great skates."
Added his father: "He's really ambitious. I'm sure he has really big goals that he wants to achieve. But after last season, especially World Juniors, he was very happy and got this title. It's a big thing. Now it's been back to training again just keep moving forward to try to stay on same track."
Part of staying on that track is the aforementioned quad Axel, and maintaining it from one competition to the next.
"Sometimes I land it, sometimes I don't," he said. "I think that's more on me; I'm trying to perfect it. I want to be as comfortable as possible with it."
Passing on a feeling
At 17, Ilia is still in school three hours a day (he goes to public school and is part of a program that allows him to train on the ice part time), but has maintained interests away from the ice.
"He likes video games, he likes skateboarding," explained his dad. He added with a laugh, "That's kind of a little dangerous for him to do, but he likes it, so … we get very nervous, yes, now we don't do it too much. I mean it's fun. He's a 17-year-old boy so ..."
Yet that 17-year-old isn't afraid to command a crowd's attention, something he hopes to do for years to come. Well, at least four more years.
"I want people to watch me and go, 'Wow, that looks so easy for him but we know that it's not. He does it so well,'" Malinin said. "I want people to feel that I know what I'm doing out on the ice."
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ILIA'SÂ FAVORITES
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Color: I like gold, matte black and purple, but I would say I like matte black the best because it looks the coolest.
Season: Summer over winter by a little bit, because there's no school and I have more time to do things I like.
Favorite childhood movie:
How to Train Your Dragon
Music: Sometimes I like to listen to rap when I get myself prepared for a competition, or to get myself energized and excited. When I want to relax and calm down, I like to listen to low-fi music.
Holiday: My birthday (Dec. 2)! I got a cool bean bag chair for a recent birthday.
Way to relax: Listening to music, playing video games
Sport other than skating:Â Skateboarding. I've been doing it for about a year and a half.
City: Toyko. The vibe was different there than the rest of the world.
Food: Pasta
Dessert: Ice cream
School subject: Science, in general, because it's hands-on. I'm taking physics this year.
Car: Ferrari
Vacation destination: Anywhere there's a pool or a beach.
Video game: Action games in general
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