Ilya Malinin is an American figure skater who competes in men’s single skating.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on December 2, 2004 in Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America (USA) in the family of figure skaters Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skornyakov. He has a younger sister Lisa, born in 2014.
He attended George C. Marshall High School.
Career
The beginning
He started on the ice at the age of 6, trained under the guidance of his parents. As a child, he was more interested in football than figure skating.
In 2016, he became the US national champion among boys. The following year, he became the US Intermediate National Champion.
In 2019, he won bronze at the US Championship among beginners.
At the advanced beginner level, in 2018 he won the Asian Open Trophy and became the silver medalist of the Golden Bear tournament.
Among juniors
Season 2019 – 2020
He made his debut at the Philadelphia Summer International junior tournament and won gold.
At the junior Grand Prix stages, he became 4th in the United States and 7th in Italy.
Due to injury, he missed the 2020 US Championships, but according to preliminary results, he received a place at the Junior World Championships. There he was 13th in the short program and 18th in the free program.
In the overall standings, he finished sixteenth.
Season 2020 – 2021
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Junior Grand Prix Series has been canceled.
Malinin was invited to Skate America 2020, where he took 5th place.
He missed the 2021 US Championships due to an ankle injury.
Season 2021 – 2022
After the resumption of the Junior Grand Prix, he won the stage in Courchevel – Junior Grand Prix France 2021. Then he won in Linz at the Junior Grand Prix Austria 2021, setting personal records. With two gold medals, he qualified for the final of the series, but it was canceled due to restrictions related to the Omicron strain.
At CS Cup of Austria 2021, he became 13th in the short program, 2nd in the free skate, and won bronze in total. At the 2022 US Championships, he won silver.
Before the 2022 World Cup, he performed at the International Challenge Cup, where he took gold and met the technical minimum. In Montpellier, he showed 4th result in the short program with a personal best of 100.16 points. In the free skate, he made mistakes and finished the tournament 9th.
He finished the season at the 2022 Junior World Championships. There he set a junior world record in the short program – 88.99 points, won the free skate and became the champion with a record amount.
Among adults
Season 2022 – 2023
He started the 2022/2023 season at CS US Classic. After the short program, he was 6th, but in the free skate he performed 5 quadruple jumps and a quadruple axel – for the first time in the history of international competitions. He won the free skate and became the first in the overall standings with a total of 257.28 points.
At the Japan Open, as part of the North American team, he took 1st place among men. The team finished second after Japan.
At Skate America 2022, after 4th place in the short program, he won the free skate, performing 5 quadruple jumps, and won gold. He became the youngest champion of the tournament in history.
At the 2022 Espoo Grand Prix, he took 2nd place in the short, won the free style and became the first in the end. This allowed him to reach the final of the series, where he won bronze.
At the 2023 US Championships, he won gold: he was first after the short program and second in the free skate.
At the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, he took 2nd place in the short program with a score of 100.38 points, losing to Shima Uno. In the free skate, he put 6 quadruple jumps, including a quadruple axel, but made mistakes on the flip and lutz. In this segment, he became 3rd and finished the tournament with bronze.
At the World Team Championships in Tokyo, he won the short program with a score of 105.90 points. In the free skate, he was 5th after falls, and the US team won gold at the end of the tournament.
Season 2023 – 2024
He opened the 2023/2024 season with a victory at CS Autumn Classic International – 100.87 points. At the Japan Open, he took first place among men, the team took 2nd place.
At Skate America 2023, he won both programs and set personal bests: 206.41 points in the free skate and 310.47 in the sum. He won gold.
At the Grand Prix de France 2023, he became a silver medalist and reached the series finals in Beijing.
In the final, he cleanly performed a quadruple axel in the short program – for the first time in the history of this segment. After a short one, he was the first. In the free skate, he fell from a quadruple axel, but won the program and became the champion. He became the first figure skater to perform all types of quadruple jumps, updated personal records and brought the United States victory in the Grand Prix final for the first time in 6 years.
In the same season, he won the US championship.
At the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, after the short program, he was 3rd with a score of 105.97 points, losing to Shima Uno and Yumi Kagiyama.
In the free skate, he performed 7 difficult jumps, including a quadruple axel, and scored 227.79 points – a new world record in this segment.
According to the sum of the two programs, he received 333.76 points and became the world champion.
Season 2024 – 2025
He started the season at the Lombardia Trophy. He performed the short program cleanly and scored more than 100 points. In the free skate, he did a backflip, overcame 200 points per segment and 300 in total, winning gold.
At Skate America, he won the short program, in the free skate he was 2nd, but in terms of the amount he became the first – this is his third consecutive victory at the tournament. At Skate Canada, he also took gold and became the first skater in 25 years to win both stages in the same season.
In the final of the Grand Prix in Grenoble, after the short program, he was in the lead with 105.43 points. In the free skate, he performed 7 quadruple jumps. Despite the 2nd place in the segment, with a total of 292.12 points, he won the final for the second time in a row. Malinin became the first in history to perform all types of quadruple jumps in one program.
In January 2025, at the US Championships, he scored 114.08 points in the short program. In the free skate, he declared 6 types of quadruple jumps, but fell off the ritberger. For the free skate, he received 219.23 points, in total – 333.31 and became the champion of the United States for the third time in a row.
At the 2025 World Championships, he won the short program with a personal best of 110.41 points. In the free skate, he planned 7 quadruples, cleanly performed 6, made a mistake on one lute. He scored 208.14 points and became the world champion for the second time in a row with a score of 318.56.
At the World Team Championships, he won both segments in men’s single skating and helped the US team win gold.
Season 2025 – 2026
He opened the Olympic season with a victory at the Lombardia Trophy 2025 in September.
In October, he won the 2025 French Grand Prix – this was his 6th gold in the stages of the series.
At Skate Canada International 2025, he set a world record in the free skate with 228.97 points. By the sum of the two programs, he scored 333.81 points, updating his personal best.
In the final of the 2025 Grand Prix in Japan, a quadruple axel-triple toe loop cascade announced in the short program, but did not perform it cleanly and became 3rd.
In the free skate, for the first time in history, he performed 7 quadruple jumps. He set a world record for technique – 147.07 points and a new world record in free skate – 238.24 points, surpassing his own previous achievement. With a total of 332.29 points, he won the final for the third time in a row.
In January 2026, he became the US champion for the fourth time in a row, winning both programs with a total of 324.88 points. After that, he was included in the US team for the 2026 Olympic Games.
2026 Winter Olympics
At the 2026 Olympics in Milan, he competed in the team tournament in both programs.
On February 7, he performed a quadruple flip in the short, but did not make the planned quadruple axel-triple toe loop cascade, replacing it with a triple axel, and made a mistake on the cascade with lutz. He received 98.00 points and became 2nd, losing to Yumi Kagiyama.
In the free skate, he planned 7 quadruples, cleanly performed 4. After falling from the second lutz and simplifying one element, he still scored 200.03 points and won the segment. For two programs, he brought the team 19 points.
The US team with 69 points took 1st place and became the Olympic champion in the team tournament.
In the individual tournament, he was considered the favorite for gold. In the short program, he cleanly performed a quadruple flip, a triple axel and a cascade of quadruple lutz-triple toeloop.
He scored 108.16 points and became the first in the segment.
In the free skate, he made several serious mistakes: he tore off the quadruple axel and rittberger, fell from lutz and salchow. Only the quadruple flip, one lutz and the quadruple-oiler-triple flip cascade were performed cleanly. For the free skate, he received 156.33 points, became 15th in the segment and finished the tournament in 8th place with a total of 264.49 points.
