BOSTON — Ilia Malinin, displaying the confident demeanor of a returning champion, took to the ice at the World Championships for his free skate with the determination to defend his title. The young skater from Fairfax, Virginia, delivered an impressive and energetic performance on Saturday night, earning a standing ovation at TD Garden. His success added to a triumphant homecoming for the American team, who secured three gold medals across the four figure skating categories, setting the stage for a promising Olympic year.
Though Malinin fell short in his ambitious attempt to land a record seven quadruple jumps, performing six after a missed quad lutz, his performance was spectacular nonetheless. He amassed a season-best score of 318.56 points, skating to “I’m Not a Vampire” by Falling In Reverse, and captured his second gold medal with a comfortable margin of over 31 points. “I was so glad I was able to work out the whole season to get to this moment,” Malinin expressed. “It means a lot to me.”
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov surged past Yuma Kagiyama to claim second place with a solid free skate, scoring 287.47 points. Kagiyama, the reigning Olympic silver medalist from Japan, finished third with 278.19 points. “If someone had asked me at the beginning of the season that I would be on the world podium, I never would have believed it,” Shaidorov reflected. “The season was difficult but at the same time it was a breakthrough, and I’m just crazily happy to be on a world podium with such great skaters as Ilia and Yuma, and now I just want to keep moving forward.”
Earlier in the evening, Madison Chock and Evan Bates made history by becoming the first ice dancers in nearly three decades to win three consecutive world championships. Their lively performance edged out Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, setting the tone for Malinin’s addition to the American haul of gold, bolstered by Alysa Liu’s victory in the women’s event.
With a three-point lead over Kagiyama from the short program, Malinin exuded confidence as he approached the ice for his warm-up. A second consecutive packed crowd at TD Garden cheered as he was introduced, watching as the “Quad God” focused intensely on his routine. His program, featuring four successful quadruple jumps including the infamous quad axel, was a feat of technical prowess, only marred by a doubled lutz, yet received a rapturous reception from the audience.
Already favored for the gold at the upcoming Milan-Cortina Olympics, Malinin’s dominance raises questions about the competition’s ability to challenge him. “Clearly, you know, he’s at the top of the field right now,” Nathan Chen commented, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist who has since retired. “Whatever he’s doing, certainly it’s working.”
Chock and Bates also set a high bar in ice dancing, winning with an impressive 222.06 points against Gilles and Poirier, who picked up their silver medals for the second year in a row with 216.54 points. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson seized bronze, marking Britain’s first worlds medal in ice dancing since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s legendary streak that ended in 1984. The last to win three consecutive titles were Russia’s Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov from 1994-97.
“We weren’t thinking about a three-peat or any type of title defense. It was a standalone event,” Bates remarked. “We were prepared as we could possibly be and we skated as well as we could have.” Now, the focus shifts to the Winter Olympics in February, where Chock and Bates are eager to secure their first Olympic podium finish in ice dance.
As they look toward Italy, Malinin, who missed the last Olympics despite a strong national performance, is now at the forefront of the American team. Determined to succeed on the world’s biggest stage, he emphasized, “My focus on the Olympics will start at the beginning of next season, when the competitions start rolling around. That is when I will have to start on strategy, making sure I like how the programs are, and how the jumps are going, and making sure that everything is comfortable before the Olympics.”