59 Facts About Ilia Malinin

Ilia Malinin was born on December 2,2004 and is an American competitive figure skater.

At the junior level, Malinin is the 2022 World Junior champion, and a two-time Junior Grand Prix gold medalist.

Ilia Malinin holds the current world junior record for the men's short program, free skate, and combined score, along with the world senior record for the men's free skate.

Ilia Malinin is the first and only skater to land a fully rotated quadruple Axel, widely regarded as the hardest jump in figure skating, in international competition.

Ilia Malinin accomplished this feat at his first attempt at the 2022 US International Classic, and repeated the feat for his senior Grand Prix debut one month later at Skate America.

Ilia Malinin was born on December 2,2004, in Fairfax, Virginia.

Ilia Malinin is the son of Russian-born Olympic Uzbek singles skaters Tatiana Malinina, and Roman Skorniakov.

Ilia Malinin's younger sister, competing as Elli Beatrice Malinina and nicknamed Liza, was born in 2014 and is a skater.

Ilia Malinin's maternal grandfather, Valery Malinin, is a former competitor for the Soviet Union and currently coaches skaters in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Ilia Malinin currently attends the George Mason University School of Dance, as well as takes online math and economics classes.

Ilia Malinin began skating at the age of six in 2010, under the tutelage of his parents in Reston, Virginia.

Internationally, on the advanced novice level, Ilia Malinin is the 2018 Asian Open Trophy champion and the 2018 Golden Bear silver medalist.

Ilia Malinin made his junior international debut at the Philadelphia Summer International, winning gold ahead of US teammate Nicholas Hsieh and Darian Kaptich of Australia.

Ilia Malinin was unable to compete at the 2020 US Championships due to injury but was awarded a berth to the 2020 World Junior Championships based on his early season results.

Ilia Malinin was instead invited to 2020 Skate America after the Grand Prix series was converted to semi-domestic events.

Ilia Malinin was unable to compete at the 2021 US Championships after missing the qualifying competition due to an ankle injury.

Ilia Malinin landed a quadruple Salchow successfully in the free skate, while making an error on his quadruple toe loop attempt.

Ilia Malinin finished the season at the 2022 World Junior Championships, which due to Bulgarian pandemic measures was delayed from early March to mid-April and relocated from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Tallinn in Estonia.

Ilia Malinin entered the event as the favorite for the gold medal based on his strong season.

Ilia Malinin won the free skate as well, setting junior world records for that segment and for total score, taking the gold medal by a margin of almost 42 points.

Ilia Malinin was instead assigned to make his World Championship debut later in the year.

Ilia Malinin was successful, winning the gold medal in the process.

Ilia Malinin opened his season at the 2022 CS US Classic.

Ilia Malinin fell while attempting a quad Lutz but successfully completed all his other jumps.

Ilia Malinin came in first place in the free skate, earning a total of 257.28 points, coming in first place overall.

At the Japan Open as part of Team North America, Ilia Malinin placed second in the men's free skate competition, earning a total of 193.42 points, just behind world champion Shoma Uno, who scored 193.80.

Ilia Malinin touched the ice on the final rotation of his quad Axel, so he was not able to land it successfully even though he accomplished it during practice, but "effortlessly" completed all four of his other quad jumps.

Ilia Malinin completed a quad toe loop, a quad Lutz and a quad Salchow in the first half of the program.

Ilia Malinin earned 194.29 points in his free skate, with a total score of 280.37, seven points more than the second-place finisher Kao Miura from Japan, putting him in first place overall.

Ilia Malinin was the youngest Skate America men's champion in the event's history.

At his second event, the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, Ilia Malinin underrotated two of his jumps and stumbled out of his triple Axel, as a result placing second in that segment behind France's Kevin Aymoz.

Ilia Malinin revealed afterward that he was "a little bit injured" with a problem in his left foot.

Ilia Malinin won the free skate decisively, moving into first place and taking his second gold medal.

At the Final in Torino, Ilia Malinin stepped out of two jumps and slightly underrotated a third, as a result placing fifth in that segment with a score of 80.10, well back of the leaders.

Ilia Malinin indicated that he remained bothered by his injury and would not attempt the quad Lutz in competition.

Ilia Malinin rebounded in the free skate, finishing in second place in that segment, with only a small error on one slightly underrotated jump.

Ilia Malinin rose to the bronze medal overall, 2.41 points behind silver medalist Sota Yamamoto of Japan.

Ilia Malinin entered the 2023 US Championships as the gold medal favourite, and, after a season of difficulties in the short program, delivered a clean performance to rank first in the segment by 10.11 points over Jason Brown.

Ilia Malinin acknowledged afterward that "this season all the short programs have been really tough, and I think that we took every single one of them and thought about where we need to work and what to improve" to get to that performance.

Ilia Malinin planned to attempt six quadruple jumps in his free skate, but fell on one and doubled two others.

Ilia Malinin placed second in that segment, behind Andrew Torgashev and only narrowly ahead of Brown, but won the gold medal on the strength of his short program showing.

At the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Ilia Malinin placed second in the short program, with a score of 100.38 points behind Shoma Uno.

Ilia Malinin won gold at the 2023 CS Autumn Classic International, his first international appearance of the season.

Ilia Malinin was invited to compete as part of Team North America at the Japan Open, and won the men's segment, while the team finished second overall.

Ilia Malinin went on to win the silver medal at his second Grand Prix event at the 2023 Grand Prix de France behind Adam Siao Him Fa of France and qualified for the Grand Prix Final in Beijing.

Ilia Malinin won the event by a 17.30-point margin over reigning World champion Shoma Uno.

Ilia Malinin won the free program with a world record score of 227.79, earning the world title with a total score of 333.76.

Ilia Malinin skated a clean short program, breaking the 100-point barrier in his very first competition of the season.

In December 2024, Ilia Malinin won the Grand Prix Final for a second consecutive time.

Ilia Malinin scored 105.43 and secured first place in the short program.

Ilia Malinin fell on one of his two quadruple Lutzes.

Ilia Malinin landed all of his other quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, but received deductions due to under-rotations.

In January 2025, Ilia Malinin competed in the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships.

On March 2,2025, Ilia Malinin took part in Legacy on Ice, an ice show organized by US Figure Skating that paid tribute to lives lost aboard American Eagle Flight 5342.

Later in March, Ilia Malinin won gold at the 2025 World Championships, marking his second consecutive World title.

Ilia Malinin ranked first in the short program with a personal best score of 110.41 and first in the free skate with a score of 208.14.

Fellow figure skaters that Ilia Malinin has cited as inspirations include Evgeni Plushenko, Nathan Chen, Mikhail Kolyada, Yuzuru Hanyu, Alexandra Trusova, as well as his mother, Tatiana.

Ilia Malinin is credited for introducing a unique choreographic move where he uses a "butterfly" entrance to propel his body into the air before performing a single sideways twist.

Ilia Malinin refers to this maneuver as the "Raspberry Twist," since Malinin means "raspberry" in Russian.