Defending champion Ilia Malinin delivered a dazzling short program featuring two quadruple jumps and a triple Axel on Friday to seize the lead in the men’s competition at the US Figure Skating Championships.
The 19-year-old son of Russian-born Olympic skaters, who is nicknamed “Quad God” for his quadruple jump prowess, amassed 108.57 points, with Maxim Naumov a distant second on 89.72 and Jason Brown third on 89.02 in Columbus, Ohio.
Malinin will try to defend his US crown in Sunday’s free skate final.
The suburban Washington resident is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, first doing so in his senior level debut at Skate America 2022.
Malinin, who took bronze at last year’s world championships, won last month’s ISU Grand Prix Final at Beijing. He landed a quad Axel in the short program and a quadruple loop in the free skate, making him the first skater to perform all six types of jumps as quads in competition.
He didn’t opt for the quadruple Axel on Friday, but opened his program with a spectacular quadruple toe and added a quadruple lutz triple toe combination before making a triple axel his final jump.
“I was just kind of grateful that I got through everything, especially with the past few weeks, having a lot of skate malfunctions,” Malinin told broadcaster NBC. “I was just a little bit nervous going to this event and I’m lucky I was able to stay on my feet and just really perform for the audience.
“I definitely felt the energy, especially towards the end of the program and just they’re all connecting towards me and I had the energy to fight through.”
Malinin, aiming for a repeat national title to stamp himself a favorite for the World Championships in Montreal March 18-24, said he hadn’t yet decided if he would include a quadruple Axel in the free skate, something he likely won’t need to win given his massive margin atop the standings.
“I think I’ll have to think about it, especially with how this whole week has been and I’ll see before the free,” Malinin said
The women’s title was to be decided later Friday with defending champion Isabeau Levito taking the lead into the deciding free skate.
Levito’s short program score of 75.38 points gave her a narrow lead over Amber Glenn (74.98) with Clare Seo in third (67.41).
