Ilia Malinin lands 4 quads — and a backflip — to win his third straight Skate America title
World champion Ilia Malinin won Skate America on Sunday for the third consecutive year, altering his free skate on the fly after an early mistake and punctuating the program with a backflip that had been banned in competition until this season.
The two-time and reigning U.S. champion scored 290.12 points to finish ahead of Kevin Aymoz of France, whose career-best free skate left him with 282.88 points and earned a standing ovation inside Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas.
Kao Miura of Japan, who was second after his short program, finished third with 278.67 points.
“I was really motivated by Kevin’s skate,” said Malinin, the early favorite for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “It really excited me and I was so happy for him. It pushed me to really just get going to try to skate that program, and of course it wasn’t what I wanted today. So after the few mistakes, I just tried to regroup and to make a strategy of what I have to do.”
In the ice dance, American world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were unable to overcome a glaring mistake during their rhythm dance on Saturday, ultimately finishing second to Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain.
Fear and Gibson wound up with 206.38 points after Sunday's free skate to become the first non-U.S. team to win Skate America since Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France in 2008. Chock and Bates ended with 205.63 points while Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck of Spain earned the bronze medal with 189.44 points.
Malinin and Miura were separated by a mere 0.15 points after their short programs, but it was Aymoz who challenged Malinin for the top of the podium. The 27-year-old from France, who struggled mightily at the end of last season, landed a pair of quads in an error-free program to score 190.84 points — the best of all the free skates — and vault into first place.
“I was super proud,” Aymoz said, "because I did work these last six months.”
Nika Egadze of Georgia was next on the ice but fell on his opening quad lutz and stepped out on his quad salchow, and those two mistakes kept him from medal contention. He wound up fourth with 261.71 points.
Miura, the 19-year-old former world junior champion, landed three quads during a program set to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” the 1964 musical romantic drama film. But Miura lost points for an under-rotated triple axel and on a step sequence that led into a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination midway through his free skate.
Malinin was last to take the ice, performing a program set to “I’m Not a Vampire” by the rock band Falling In Reverse.
He opened with a perfect quad flip and then hit a triple axel, even though Malinin remains the only skater to have landed the quad version of the jump in competition. Then came the mistake, when he doubled a planned quad loop, leaving Malinin to make changes on the fly over the second half of the program in an attempt to make up the lost points.
After putting his hand down on his triple lutz, Malinin landed a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination before a quad salchow-triple axel in sequence — a pair of huge jumping passes that sent his technical score soaring.
Malinin capped the recovery of his program with a backflip during his choreographed sequence, a move that had been banned until this season because of its inherent danger. It was expected all along but nonetheless sent a roar through the crowd, just as Malinin's program came to an end and a steady stream of stuffed animals were thrown onto the ice.
“It was really hard for me in the middle of the program to think what I have to do — what I need to do,” Malinin said when asked about the early mistake. “I just went full autopilot through there and I'm glad I made it out.”
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
