Ilia Malinin laid in the middle of the ice at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday as everyone else stood in ovation.
He has that effect on people.
In another stunning display of athleticism, the reigning world champion landed six of his seven planned quad jumps — including the quad axel, the jump that only Malinin has ever landed in competition — and finished with 333.31 points after his free skate to win his third consecutive national championship at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita.
Andrew Torgashev landed a pair of quads during his free skate and finished second with 286.49 points, while Camden Pulkinen took advantage of a sloppy free skate from Jimmy Ma to secure the bronze medal with 252.92 points.
Malinin was trying to become the first skater ever to land seven clean quads in competition, and he came close. He opened with the quad flip, easily landed his quad axel and hit his quad lutz — the second-hardest of the quads. But then came his only miscue, when Malinin fell on his quad loop, and he punched the air in mid-routine as if he was miffed at himself.
He landed three more quads, all of them leading into other jumps, and finished it all off with a crowd-pleasing backflip.
“It wasn't the perfect program that I exactly wanted, but I think I gave a good, solid start for what is working in this program,” said Malinin, who was using nationals as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming world championships in Boston.
If it had been international competition, Malinin's score would have nearly matched Nathan Chen's record of 335.30 points.
“I'm still not at my full potential yet and there's a lot bigger limit, I guess, that I can go for,” Malinin said.
Malinin went into the free skate with a record margin for nationals — 19.14 points over anyone else in the field — after a sublime short program Saturday that was even a bit tame by his standards. The self-proclaimed “Quad God” landed a quad flip and a quad lutz-triple toe loop combination but chose to skip over his quad axel for a triple axel instead.
Malinin was philosophical about it afterward, saying, “There's the pressure of trying to do (the quad axel) at every competition. People might want to see something bigger and better, but I want to make sure I am consistent.”
That hasn't been a problem.
The 20-year-old from Fairfax, Virginia, has won eight consecutive competitions since a second-place finish at the Grand Prix de France last year. That stretch of podium perfection included his second national title, two victories at the prestigious Grand Prix Final, and a world championship that Malinin will attempt to defend on home soil in March.
It's a run that prompted Ma to vault Malinin into the same category of greatness as Chen, the retired Olympic champion.
“I don’t even think of Ilia as competition anymore because it’s not something I think I can achieve,” Ma said. “It’s just an honor to be friends and compete with two people who can be considered GOATs in their own way.”
The 23-year-old Torgashev, who was third at the Grand Prix de France, was so pumped about his performance to the symphonic suite “Scheherazade” that earned him a silver medal that he said stepping off the ice Sunday, “I ... crushed it.”
Pulkinen rounded out the podium with a second consecutive bronze medal at nationals.
