Ilia Malinin
Updated: Wikipedia source
Ilia Malinin (born December 2, 2004), sometimes nicknamed “Quad God”, is an American competitive figure skater. He is a two-time World champion (2024, 2025), three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2023, 2024, 2025), seven-time Grand Prix gold medalist, four-time Challenger Series gold medalist, and three-time U.S. national champion (2023–25). 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 short program, free skate, and combined score, as well as the senior record for the men's free skate. Malinin is the first and only skater to successfully land a fully rotated quadruple Axel in international competition, accomplishing this feat at the 2022 U.S. International Classic and performing it multiple times since. During the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships, Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV presented Malinin with a hat bearing the nickname “Quad God,” which he later wore during media interviews and photo sessions. Malinin began skating in 2011 and comes from a family of skaters. His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, represented Uzbekistan at the Olympic Winter Games, and his grandfather, Valery Malinin, is also a figure skating coach. At the junior level, Malinin won the 2022 World Junior title with a record score. He placed second to Nathan Chen at the 2022 U.S. Championships and was named an alternate to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team. Early in his senior career, he became known for his technical prowess, particularly for landing multiple quadruple jumps, including quad-quad combinations. Malinin attends George C. Marshall High School as a senior, balancing in-person and online classes to accommodate his training and competition schedule. In September 2022, he was named to Time magazine's Time 100 Next List of emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.