Ilia Malinin, a 19-year-old figure skater from our own backyard, has been making international history, right under our noses. Ilia Malinin, a recent graduate of Marshall High School, is the only figure skater in the world who has successfully landed six quadruple (quad) jumps in competition. This includes the famous quad axel, a jump with four and a half midair rotations. His ability to land this four rotation jump has earned him the name “quadgod” on social media.
The first time Ilia Malinin, or anyone, performed the quad axel in a short program was at the Grand Prix Final in Beijing this past December. His latest victory was at The U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Ohio on Jan. 28. This record-setter is also a 2023 Marshall High School graduate. His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov are both former Uzbekistani Olympians who have encouraged Malnin to pursue skating since he was little. Malinin will follow in his parents’ footsteps as he is already an international champion and a soon-to-be Olympian.
There are two events in figure skating, the long program and the short program. Athlete’s scores for both events are totaled to determine the overall winner. In the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Malinin won by a huge margin of 30 points against his competitors. He did not compete the quad axel jump in his short program, but he still had many other quad jumps which contributed to a high score of 108.57. In the long program, he executed the quad axel perfectly and ended with a score of 185.78. It is important to note that Malinin has not been competing with the quad axel as much as he has in the past because the skill is widely seen as undervalued and does not give him enough points to compensate for the risk. However, this does not affect Malinin’s ability to win gold, as he has won many competitions without the remarkable jump.
Malinin’s successes in skating did not come from nowhere though. Although he has natural talent, he has been working tirelessly to get where he is now. Some skaters at the rink say he’s even started to attempt a few quintuple jumps–jumps with five rotations. Lyla Hutchinson (’27), a fellow skater, talks about her experience seeing him during her own ice skating practices.
“It’s rare to be able to see someone with that kind of talent on a daily basis,” Hutchison said. “When I see him compete on TV, I recognize the routine from seeing him work on it for months at the rink. It’s amazing to see it all come together.”
Next, Malinin is off to Montreal for the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships in March. In just two years, Malinin will be going to his first ever Olympic Games, where he will join team USA and have the whole country, Vienna especially, rooting for him.