Before he became a record-breaking figure skater, Ilia Malinin had an alternative career choice in mind.
The 21-year-old is no stranger to ice skating as both his parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, competed for Uzbekistan at the 1998 Nagano and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
However, the American figure skater had no intention of following in his parents’ footsteps, and instead of a pair of skates, he wanted a pair of soccer cleats.
“I thought I was going to be a soccer player,” he told People, “But my parents didn’t have time to take me to soccer lessons — so skating kind of took over.”
Ilia made his debut on the ice at the age of six, and by the time he was 13, he landed his first quad jump, which he said was the moment his parents “realized I was surprisingly good.”
Despite his grandfather, Valery Malinin, a skating coach in Russia, previously claiming that Ilia wanted to quit skating for soccer when he was 15, he stuck with it and became the first, and so far, only skater in history to land the quadruple axel in competition at the 2022 CS U.S. International Classic.
Ilia is expected to perform a quad axel, a jump that requires the skater to complete four and a half rotations in the air before landing, again during the men’s free skate at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on February 13, after he substituted it for a triple axel in the team event on Sunday, which saw him earn his first Olympic gold medal.
© Getty Images“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it [on Friday],” he told reporters, via Fox News, earlier this week.
“But, of course, I always prioritize health and safety, so I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it and not have that as something that I’m going to risk.”
© Getty ImagesIlia, nicknamed ‘Quad God,’ has won gold at the World Figure Skating Championships as well as two gold medals in both the ISU Grand Prix Final and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
When he competed in Japan in December, Ilia set a record with the number of quadruple jumps in his routine. “I knew I was going to make history,” he told People, “And after landing the seventh one, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just did it.'”
© Getty ImagesAt the national championships in January, Ilia even “impressed” himself with his ability on the ice. “I just came into this competition just to see what happens out there, and I impressed myself. I didn’t know I could skate that good,” he said.
The Northern Virginia native has also been the talk of the Winter Games after landing the first legal backflip at the Olympics since 1976.
© Getty ImagesThe move was deemed too dangerous, so it was banned in 1977 by the International Skating Union after American figure skater Terry Kubicka performed the first-ever backflip at the 1976 Olympics. The International Skating Union lifted the ban on backflips in 2024.
“Having that attention, all those eyes on you — that pressure shows you who you truly are on the ice,” Ilia said. “It’s one thing to do everything in practice, but it’s another skill to be able to perform it under pressure. That’s something I really enjoy.”
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