After Stunning Debut Grand Prix Season, Malinin and His Quad Axel Head to Grand Prix Final

For years, the primary feeling about the quad Axel was skepticism. Surely, a jump that required more than four rotations wasn't possible.
 
Those beliefs were shattered this season by a 17-year-old with some casual self-confidence.
 
In September at the 2022 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, Ilia Malinin became the first skater ever to land a quad Axel in competition. He landed the jump again at Skate America in October en route to earning his first senior Grand Prix gold medal.
 
"I don't know how (getting the quad axel) officially started, but I think that I saw a lot of people started trying it, and I just felt interested," Malinin said. "The idea is very special, and I was like, 'Oh, maybe this would be something I could do one day.'"
 
He didn't start training it until after the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in April – which he won – so if he injured himself, it wouldn't be during the competition season.
 
"One day, I was sort of just feeling my triple Axels really well, and I was like, 'I wonder. Maybe I should just try to go for one,'" Malinin said. "So I went for one, and I was surprised at how I attempted it. From there, I knew it was possible, so I just kept on practicing and practicing and trying it, and eventually landed it."
 
Malinin only needed a month or two of training to land the jump that had once seemed impossible, and slotted it into his free skate to begin his first international season on the senior level.
 
That's right. Malinin – who turned 18 on Dec. 2 and says he celebrated his birthday by going to practice – very nearly made the 2022 Olympic team with a breakout silver-medal performance at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but he's still brand new to senior competition.
 
"I don't think (not making the Olympic team) affected anything too big," Malinin said. "It is still in the back of my head that it was unfortunate that I couldn't go, but I think the main deal is to sort of forget about the decisions that happened and to continue on with the rest of the season and start the new season."
 
Finishing out the season, of course, involved winning the World Junior title and finishing ninth in his World Figure Skating Championships debut.
 
It was an auspicious way to end, and Malinin spent the offseason trying to shore up his weaknesses as he prepared to step up a level of competition.
 
"The main goal that we were looking at was to start finding some new people to make programs that are a lot more complex and a lot more on the artistic side of skating," Malinin said. "That was one really big thing that we worked on, as well as just skating skills and drills in general. We were doing that all of last season. We started getting into those skating skills a lot more, which, hopefully by practicing them a lot more, they should become easier and easier to do."
 
Even armed with improved skating skills and a quad Axel, Malinin admits he was nervous to test himself against the best skaters in the world at Skate America.
 
"I had a lot more nerves than, say, nationals or some of the Challenger Series competitions, but I think that it was really started in a good direction," Malinin said. "Because even though I was nervous, I felt pretty confident in myself during that time, and it just helped me get some good performances out there."
 
Good performances indeed. Malinin sat in fourth place after the short program before blowing the free skate out of the water, complete with a quad Axel that had the entire sports world abuzz.
 
"I was pretty shocked in the moment," Malinin said with a laugh of landing the jump heard round the world. "I wasn't expecting it to go that well. But I think that, at the same time, I wasn't able to fully express myself during the competition because I had other jumps and I had the rest of the program to go through. It took me a couple of seconds when I was exiting the jump to really come to the conclusion that I just did one of my best quad Axels ever."
 
Since etching his name into the history books, Malinin is now a bona fide skating celebrity. He says he gets recognized frequently, and enjoys people coming up to him and reacting to what he's done.
 
"I find it fun," he said. "I really enjoy having people say, 'I know you. You're that guy!'"
 
A month after Skate America, Malinin had his second Grand Prix assignment at the Grand Prix of Espoo in Finland. He won his second Grand Prix title despite an overuse injury to his left foot and removing all Lutzes from his programs.
 
Malinin says his foot is now feeling much better, which is fortunate, as his two wins qualified him for the ISU Grand Prix Final on Dec. 8-11 in Torino, Italy.
 
"I've always wanted to go to the Final, especially since these past years they've always been canceled or I wasn't able to make it," Malinin said. "It's all been such a journey. I'm just very excited to finally make the Final. I'm really hoping to deliver my best out there."
 
Malinin says his goal is to just skate cleanly and consistently, and of course has his eye on the top of every podium and hopes to land more quad Axels. If he were to win the Grand Prix Final, he would be the second-youngest man ever to do so.
 
But despite all the history at his fingertips this season, Malinin doesn't let it get to him.
 
"Most of the time, I don't usually think about making history," he said. "I think it's more about just me wanting to push myself to become better than I was before, and I always have that mentality. I always look at myself like there's a lot more things I need to work on. And I think I have the same mentality towards going to Italy, and I think if I keep putting that up, I will be pretty successful this season."