Despite the “Pressure” of Making History, Ilia Malinin Makes Another Bold Promise

Ilia Malinin is a pioneering American skater who previously landed the groundbreaking four-and-a-half revolution jump. He achieved a stellar score of 106.90 points with a flawless quad-lutz-triple toe loop combination and a clean triple axel. In a tight race, Japan’s Shoma Uno, a two-time world champion, closely followed with 106.02 points, executing two successful quads.

Ilia Malinin, the sole skater to land the quad Axel, set a season-best score in the men’s short program at the ISU Grand Prix Final 2023 in Beijing on December 7. Making history, he successfully executed the first quad Axel in a short program, despite previously avoiding it due to its devalued base value. However, more recently he revealed something that caught everyone’s eye.

Ilia Malinin’s reflective interview and future plans

Following Ilia Malinin’s flawless execution of a quad, Golden Skate released a compelling interview with him, captioned, “Ilia Malinin 🇺🇸 PB 106.90 including first-ever landed quad Axel in the SP.” In the interview, Malini expressed, “I came here to surprise everyone. It was a lot of pressure on me.”

He further remarked that his competence to perform a quad axel in his program was vital. He said once again that under the terms of the regulation the jump was allowed. It was included during training, as it has been discussed with practitioners who are judges of his field. Finally, looking towards the future, he said that he would probably continue and try to do clean on quad Axel in the next show program.

Controversial remarks

In May, the U.S. men’s figure skating champion Ilia Malinin sparked controversy during an Instagram Live chat when questioned about proving his sexual orientation. His hesitant response triggered three rapid apologies on Twitter and a formal letter of apology to U.S. Figure Skating.

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Malinin’s comments led to immediate regret, prompting apologies to viewers for linking sexual orientation with scoring by judges in the sport. Expressing remorse, he extended additional apologies to the governing body, judges, and fellow competitors, emphasizing no evidence of his heterosexual orientation affecting his scoring. U.S. Figure Skating, while supporting the LGBTQ+ community, mandated sensitivity training for Malinin to deepen his understanding of LGBTQ+ issues within figure skating and society at large.

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