The 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo is less than 100 days away, and from what we saw on the weekend in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, American Ilia Malinin of Fairfax, Virginia has an excellent chance of winning gold for the United States in men’s figure skating.
Why the dominance?
That is because of Malinin’s excellence in the long program of Skate Canada on Sunday. He posted the best free skate score ever of 228.97 points. The old record belonged to Malinin as he had 227.79 points at the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Quebec. It is interesting that both of the exceptional performances came on Canadian ice.
In the free skate of Skate Canada on Sunday, Malinin performed to music from the French movie Le Bal des Folles, and had six quadruple jumps and a back flip. The back flip was only first permitted again by the International Skating Union as of June 2024. This will be the first time we will see the back flip at an Olympic Winter Games in February since the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck. It is interesting that the back flip was considered dangerous by the ISU for nearly half a century.
Two-time world champion
In addition to his 2024 world title, Malinin also won the men’s event at the 2025 World Men’s Figure Skating Championships in Boston. Malinin’s score at the 2025 worlds was 208.15 points.
Why did we not see Malinin at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing?
The answer here is because of his age. Malinin was only 17 at the time, and according to the Associated Press, US Figure Skating wanted to go with a more experienced team. However many believe US Figure Skating made the wrong decision as Malinin could have put two American men on the Olympic podium in men’s figure skating. Nathan Chen of Salt Lake City, Utah won the gold medal, while Yuma Kagiyama of Japan won silver and Shoma Uno of Japan won bronze.
Malinin’s recent domination
Malinin has not lost an event since the 2023 Grand Prix of France. At the time, he finished in second place with a score of 203.1 points. Adam Siao Him Fa of France was the champion. Since then, Malinin has won six Grand Prix events, two ISU Challenger Series events in Italy, two United States Championships, two World Championships and the 2025 World Team Trophy in Tokyo.
