Ilia Malinin (born December 2, 2004) is an American figure skater. He is a 2026 Olympic Games team event gold medalist, three-time World champion (2024, 2025, 2026), three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2023, 2024, 2025), seven-time Grand Prix gold medalist, four-time Challenger Series gold medalist, and four-time U.S. national champion (2023–26). At the junior level, Malinin is the 2022 World Junior champion and a two-time Junior Grand Prix gold medalist. He holds the current world junior record for the men's free skate and combined score, as well as the senior record for the men's free skate.
Malinin is the only skater to successfully land a fully rotated quadruple Axel in international competition, accomplishing this feat at the 2022 CS U.S. International Classic and performing it multiple times since. In September 2022, he was named to Time magazine's Time 100 Next List. He is nicknamed "Quad God", a reference to his signature quadruple jumps.
Early life and education Ilia Malinin was born on December 2, 2004, in Fairfax County, Virginia. He is the son of Tatiana Malinina, an Olympic skater who competed for Uzbekistan and was the 1999 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final champion, 1999 Four Continents champion, and ten-time Uzbek national champion; and Roman Skorniakov, also an Olympic skater who competed for Russia before switching to Uzbekistan and was a seven-time Uzbek national champion. His younger sister Elli Beatrice Malinina also competes in figure skating. He was given his mother's surname (in the masculine inflection) because his parents were concerned that his father's surname would be too difficult to pronounce. He is fluent in Russian. His maternal grandfather, Valery Malinin, is a former competitor for the Soviet Union and works as a skating coach in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Malinin attended George C. Marshall High School, where he graduated in 2023. His favorite subject while in high school was Physics. He currently attends George Mason University.
Career Early career Malinin began skating at the age of six in 2011 under the tutelage of his parents in Reston, Virginia. When he was a child, he often preferred playing soccer to training in a cold arena, but his grandfather advised his parents to be patient, saying "he'll [gain] his triple jumps, [and then] you won't be able to drag him away.” He went on to become the 2016 U.S. national juvenile champion, the 2017 U.S. national intermediate champion, and the 2019 U.S. national novice bronze medalist. Internationally, Malinin is the 2018 Asian Open Trophy champion at the advanced novice level and the 2018 Golden Bear of Zagreb silver medalist.
Junior career 2019–20 season: Junior international debut
Malinin made his junior international debut at the Philadelphia Summer International, where he won the gold medal. On the 2019 ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) circuit, he placed fourth at the JGP in the United States and seventh at the JGP in Italy. He was unable to compete at the 2020 U.S. Championships due to injury, but was awarded a berth to the 2020 World Junior Championships based on his early season results. At the World Junior Championships, he placed thirteenth in the short program and eighteenth in the free skate, finishing sixteenth overall.
2020–21 season Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, where Malinin would have competed, was cancelled. He was instead invited to compete at the 2020 Skate America, where he finished fifth after unveiling two new quadruple jumps – the toe loop and Salchow – that he had learned during lock-down. As a result of his placement, he was invited to participate in the Las Vegas Invitational, where he helped Team Tara defeat Team Johnny. He gained the nickname "Quad God" after adopting the Instagram handle "quadg0d" in late 2020, as inspiration for the quadruple jumps that he was striving to learn. Malinin was unable to compete at the 2021 U.S. Championships after missing the qualifying competition due to an ankle injury.
2021–22 season: World Junior champion and two Junior Grand Prix gold With the resumption of the Junior Grand Prix circuit, Malinin returned to international competition at the first edition of the 2021 JGP in France in Courchevel, winning the gold medal despite errors on both of his attempted quadruple jumps in his free skate. He called it "a struggle since I haven't competed in a year, but I think now that I'm back, things are starting going back to normal." At his second event, the 2021 JGP in Austria in Linz, Malinin entered as one of the favorites for the gold medal and won with new personal bests in all segments. He landed a quadruple Salchow successfully in the free skate, although he made an error attempting a quadruple toe loop. With two gold medals, he qualified for the 2021 Junior Grand Prix Final. However, the event was later cancelled due to travel restrictions to Japan prompted by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
Malinin finished the season at the 2022 World Junior Championships, which was delayed from early March to mid-April and relocated from Bulgaria to Estonia. He entered the event as the favorite for the gold medal based on his strong season. In the short program, he set a new junior world record of 88.99. He won the free skate as well, setting junior world records for that segment and for total score, winning the gold medal by a margin of almost 42 points.
Senior career 2021–22 season: Senior international debut
Early in his senior career, he became known for his technical prowess, particularly for landing multiple quadruple jumps, including quad-quad combinations. Returning to the senior level at the 2021 Cup of Austria in November, he placed thirteenth in the short program, but rallied back with a second-place free skate to win the bronze medal. Competing at the 2022 U.S. Championships with hopes of making the American team to the 2022 Winter Olympics, he placed third in the short program. He finished second in the free skate with four quadruple jumps, winning the silver medal, which he said: "I definitely wasn't expecting to skate this good and especially place second."
Malinin's placement meant that, per qualification criteria, the third berth on the Olympic team was to be decided between him and fourth-place Jason Brown. Ultimately, the committee chose Brown, a result that attracted some controversy. Malinin was instead assigned to make his World Championship debut later in the year. Brown praised him, saying: "U.S. figure skating is so lucky to have such a bright future with Ilia."
In advance of the 2022 World Championships, Malinin was sent to the International Challenge Cup to secure the required technical minimum scores. He was successful, winning the gold medal in the process. Competing at the World Championships in Montpellier, France, Malinin finished fourth in the short program with a personal best of 100.16, exceeding his previous best international score by almost 20 points. In the free skate, he made major errors on two quadruple jump attempts and dropped to ninth overall. He spoke afterwards of having put "more pressure on myself, just wanting to skate good so badly, and it kind of didn't work out."
2022–23 season: World bronze and first Grand Prix Final medal Malinin opened his season at the 2022 U.S. International Classic. He placed sixth in his short program. His free skate, which was set to the Euphoria soundtrack and choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne, consisted of five quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, making him the first skater to ever successfully land the jump in international competition. American figure skater Adam Rippon called Malinin's accomplishment "the craziest thing I've ever seen anyone do on the ice.” His free skate also included a difficult triple Lutz-triple Axel jump combination. He fell while attempting a quadruple Lutz, but successfully completed all of his other jumps. He finished first in the free skate, earning a total of 257.28 points and finishing overall in first place.
At the Japan Open as part of Team North America, Malinin placed second in the men's free skate competition, earning a total of 193.42 points, just behind world champion Shoma Uno. He was unable to successfully land his quadruple Axel, although he had accomplished it during practice, but "effortlessly" completed all four of his other quadruple jumps. Returning to the senior Grand Prix at the 2022 Skate America, Malinin fell on his quadruple toe loop, but earned 86.08 points in his short program, which put him in fourth place. During his free skate, he fell on a quadruple Lutz-triple Salchow jump combination, but successfully landed four "solid" quadruple jumps, including a "beautiful" and "nearly perfectly" executed quadruple Axel. He also completed a quadruple toe loop, a quadruple Lutz, and a quadruple Salchow in the first half of the program. After an error on the Lutz combination in the second half, the Associated Press reported that "with an almost sheepish smile", he got back up from the ice and completed a triple flip-triple toe loop jump combination and a triple Lutz-triple Axel jump combination, which earned him a standing ovation from the audience. He earned 194.29 points in his free skate, with a total score of 280.37, putting him in first place overall. He was the youngest men's champion in the history of Skate America. At his second event, the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, Malinin placed second in the short program, revealing afterward that he was "a little bit injured". He won the free skate decisively, moving into first place and winning his second gold medal. These results qualified him to the 2022 Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy. There, Malinin placed fifth in the short program with a score of 80.10. He indicated that he remained bothered by his injury and would not attempt a quadruple Lutz. He rebounded in the free skate, finishing in second place. He ultimately won the bronze medal. Malinin said his "goal [was] to definitely make sure that I'm able to be comfortable with my short program because, as of right now, it's been a bit messy."
Malinin entered the 2023 U.S. Championships as the gold medal favorite, and after a season of difficulties in the short program, delivered a clean performance to finish first in the segment. He 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. Malinin had planned to attempt six quadruple jumps in his free skate, but fell on one and doubled two others. He placed second in that segment, but won the gold medal on the strength of his short program score. At the 2023 World Championships, Malinin placed second in the short program, with a score of 100.38 points. He went on to attempt the most technically difficult free skate ever seen at the World Championships with six quadruple jumps, landing three cleanly – including the quadruple Axel, the first ever performed at an ISU championship event – earning 188.06 to place third in the free skate and third overall with a combined score of 288.44. During the 2023 championships, Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV presented him with a hat bearing the nickname "Quad God," which he later wore during media interviews and photo sessions.
2023–24 season: World champion and Grand Prix Final gold
Malinin won the gold medal at the 2023 Autumn Classic International, his first international appearance of the season. He 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.