BOSTON — Ilia Malinin landed a record-tying six quadruple jumps in his World Championships free skate, taking a repeat world title to cap an undefeated season.
Malinin totaled 318.56 points between Thursday’s short program and his “I’m Not a Vampire” free skate Saturday, running his win streak to nine events dating to December 2023.
He won comfortably by 31.09 over Mikhail Shaidorov, a 20-year-old from Kazakhstan who had four quads in a personal best free skate.
It’s the second-largest margin of victory in men’s history under a 21-year-old scoring system. Nathan Chen won by 47.63 points in 2018.
FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who was 3.32 points behind Malinin after the short, dropped to bronze after several jumping errors in his free skate.
Americans Jason Brown and Andrew Torgashev placed eighth and 22nd, respectively. The U.S. qualified the maximum three men’s quota spots for the 2026 Olympics.
If the U.S. earns a third pairs’ spot at a last-chance qualifier in September, it will send a full team of three entries in all four Olympic figure skating disciplines for the first time since 1984.
The U.S. won three of the four events at figure skating worlds for the first time in history: Malinin in men’s singles, Alysa Liu in women’s singles and Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dance.
Malinin capped it by landing all six types of quads on Saturday night: flip, Axel, Lutz and loop, plus a toe loop and Salchow, each in combination.
It’s the first time a skater landed all six types of quads in one program without having any called for an under-rotation. He landed all six with two under-rotations at December’s Grand Prix Final.
His only significant error Saturday was doubling a planned quad Lutz.
For the third consecutive competition, he went into the free skate hoping to become the first person to land seven quads in one program. He landed six on each occasion (with two under-rotations among the 18 total).
Malinin was asked if his overriding feeling was excitement for repeating as world champ or disappointment for just missing the seven quads.
“That’s a tough question, I’d say,” said Malinin, who is one of two skaters to land six quads, along with Chen. “I’m feeling both of those things right now because that seven-quad layout for me, it’s really my ideal layout, and I really want to nail this and have it be comfortable, effortless. I really want it so I can have another history marking.”
Malinin is so enamored with that layout that he put it on the back of a hoodie.
Malinin, the son of Uzbek skaters who moved to Virginia after competing at the 1998 Olympics, can make his own Olympic debut next February.
Every American man who won the world title the year before the Olympics went on to win Olympic gold the following year: Dick Button (1951), Hayes Alan Jenkins (1955), David Jenkins (1959), Scott Hamilton (1983), Evan Lysacek (2009) and Chen (2021).
In January 2022, Malinin finished second in his senior U.S. Championships debut at 17, but wasn’t chosen for the three-man Beijing Olympic team due to his inexperience. Malinin landed four quads in his free skate at those nationals.
“He is certainly the future of U.S. figure skating,” Chen said that day, adding that Malinin was “miles ahead” of where Chen was at that age.
Chen stepped away from competition after winning the 2022 Olympics. Malinin not only filled the void, but also took jumping up a level from Chen’s previously unprecedented heights.
He opened the 2022-23 season by becoming the first skater to land a quad Axel in competition. He has achieved several more firsts in the two and a half years since, and as he said Saturday, still yearns for more.
This figure skating season concludes with World Team Trophy from April 17-19, live on Peacock.
Men’s Singles
Gold: Ilia Malinin (USA) — 318.56
Silver: Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) — 287.47
Bronze: Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) — 278.19
4. Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) — 275.48
5. Kevin Aymoz (FRA) — 272.52
6. Shun Sato (JPN) — 270.56
7. Cha Jun-Hwan (KOR) — 265.74
8. Jason Brown (USA) — 265.40
9. Nika Egadze (GEO) — 263.03
10. Nikolaj Memola (ITA) — 255.13
22. Andrew Torgashev (USA) — 212.79
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