Ilia Malinin lands six quadruple jumps, wins third US figure skating event by historic margin

World champion Ilia Malinin landed a record-tying six clean quadruple jumps to win his third consecutive U.S. figure skating title.

Malinin, a 20-year-old from the DC area, landed a quad flip, quad Axel (a jump no other skater has ever landed), two quad lutzes, quad toe loop and quad Salchow in Sunday’s free skate in Wichita, Kansas .

He attempted to become the first skater to land seven clean quads in one skate, but fell on his fourth quad attempt, a loop. His top international rivals try three or four quads in free skates.

Malinin totaled 333.31 points, prevailing by 46.82 over runner-up Andrew Torgashev. Both are very likely to be named in the three-man squad for March’s world championships in Boston.

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“It wasn’t the perfect program that I exactly wanted,” Malinin said on NBC Sports. “But I think it really gives me a good, solid start on what works in this program and some things I might need to take time to really develop or take away from the program.

“One of the things I would say is maybe that I am still not at my full potential yet and that there is much more of a limit that I can go after. So I think it’s something to look forward to at worlds. “

It is the third-largest margin of victory in US Championship history across all disciplines under a 20-year scoring system. Nathan Chen won two of his six titles with 58.21 and 55.44.

Malinin has now won eight competitions in a row, a streak that began in December 2023.

He is the overwhelming early favorite to make it back-to-back Olympic men’s singles titles for the United States in 2026 after Chen stepped away from competition after the 2022 Beijing Games.

Malinin first broke through at the 2022 US Championships at the age of 17, placing second to Chen. He was left out of the three-man Olympic team for the more experienced Jason Brown and Vincent Zhou.

Eight months later, Malinin opened his 2022–23 season by becoming the first skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition. The “Quad God” era began.

Fast forward to Malinin’s final competition in December’s Grand Prix Final. He became the first skater to attempt seven quads in one program. He attempted and landed all six types—also unprecedented—though two were judged under-rotated, and all of his jump passes were graded negative for at least minor errors.

Malinin took the score sheet for this program – which he considered the “perfect layout” of jumps – and Slipped it on the back of a sweatshirt.

“It was just a personal piece for me,” Malinin, who has his own merchandise booth at competitions, said of the hoodie before nationals. “Just like a memory of the first time goes for all these seven quad jumps in one program. Of course, it wasn’t what I wanted as a program in general, but I think it was definitely the first start of this. “

The figure skating season continues this week with the European Championships starting on Wednesday, live on Peacock.

Ilia Malinin plans to do a backflip at Skate America after figure skating officials made it legal for the first time in nearly 50 years.