during 2022 Ilya Malinin watched the Olympic Games with surprise Yuzuru Hanyu attempts a quadruple pivot During his free skate.
Hanyu, who was a two-time gold medalist at the time, jumped low and fell on the ice. But that moment, and the courage to take the most difficult jump ever, awakened something in Malinin.
“Honestly, I was very excited,” Malinin told ESPN last month. “I said, ‘Yeah, this looks really possible. I think I can do it.'”
Malinin had already given himself the nickname and social media handle, “The Quad God”. He knew that not only could he do it, but he could also be the first person to do it in competition. The idea of achieving immortality in figure skating thrilled him.
He said, “I like to live life with the idea of proving the impossible possible.”
He was 17 at the time, and he soon confidently told his team what he wanted to do. No one was surprised. No one tried to talk to him about it. Instead, he developed a plan and figured out exactly what he needed to do.
By May that year, US Figure Skating posted a video Malinin landing a clean quad axel at jumping camp. He fielded it in competition in September.
It took the teenager only seven months to bring his vision to reality and make something that many thought impossible to do happen. Now, four years after being inspired by Hanyu’s fearless performance, it is Malinin’s turn. Since the last Games, Malinin has emerged as the sport’s most dominant superstar with two world titles to his name and an undefeated streak until 2023.
new record. Same standards. 🥇
Ilya Malinin won the ISU Grand Prix Final for the third consecutive year with a GP record free skate score of 238.24. pic.twitter.com/UONON7GQDx
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) 6 December 2025
Malinin helped the United States win a gold medal in the team event over the weekend – and did so without even attempting her quad Axel and despite some uncharacteristic errors. But not even at its best, it was still adequate and provided a memorable introduction to the Olympic Games. He is now set to begin competing in the individual men’s event on Tuesday.
“I [hope fans] “They appreciate what they’re seeing with Ilya,” 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano told ESPN last week. “It seems like no matter how easy it sounds, and no matter how intuitive it seems, if you put another person, another competitor on the ice and ask them to do the same performance, they won’t even try it because they can’t do it. …It’s something that hasn’t been done before and probably won’t be done again.”
Boitano would know. After all, they helped start the Quad revolution.
In 1982, he became the first American to land a triple Axel – considered the most difficult jump in the sport at the time. But after four years, he knew he needed more to distinguish himself on the international scene, and he began training for the quadruple toe loop. When he first mentioned it in training, many people around him did not believe it. He remembers well the hype surrounding the 1987 National Championship.
Boitano, who co-hosted the “Milan Magic” podcast for USA TODAY during the Games, said, “There was a whole thing about the quad going on the program at USA TODAY, how it was a quad twist in the air. It was a big deal.” “It was a frame-by-frame explanation of what a quadruple jump was. So it was definitely unusual at the time.”
Despite numerous attempts and success in events and warm-ups in practice, Boitano was never able to advance in competition. He came close to those civilians but while landing he touched the snow with his hand. Eventually he dropped it from his program. Instead, his Olympic free skate featured two triple Axels and a total of eight triple jumps.
However, the push for more quads was well underway, and Curt Browning made history by landing a quad toe loop at the World Championships in 1988. As of 2017, Nathan Chen added his name to the record books by landing five different quad jumps in a free skate. Chen, who will win Olympic gold in 2022, later became the first athlete to land six quad jumps in the same event.
But the pivot seemed just out of reach.
“The quad axel is not something that’s even developed in the vernacular of skating because it’s not possible,” 2014 Olympian and three-time national champion Ashley Wagner told ESPN. “This is something that people have accepted and it cannot be accepted. You can’t do that.”
Wagner, who trained with the same coach as Chen for several years, said that he believed Chen was “one of the greatest athletes of all time” and did not believe anyone could surpass what he was capable of doing. “I thought I had seen everything that was physically possible because there’s a limit to it,” he said.
“I think it wouldn’t have been possible if he wasn’t fully prepared for this game.”
-Olympian Ashley Wagner
Of the six jumps in skating, the axel is considered the most difficult. The sole jump, which is performed facing forward, requires an additional half-turn in the air and, unlike some other jumps, which are performed with toe-off, a skater takes off entirely on one foot, dramatically reducing one’s stability. According to Boitano, everything must be done precisely and there should be no margin for error.
“It requires correct upper body position, and correct body weight on the side you fly, and you have to make sure your body’s tilt is neither out nor in,” Boitano explained. “It has to be exactly over the left hip, which is over the left knee, which is over the left foot. So it’s all about timing and accuracy.”
Artur Dmitriev Jr. was the first to attempt it in international competition in 2018. Hanyu then tried out during several competitions during the 2021–2022 Olympic season. But Malinin was about to make history.
“To be honest, it was such a rush of emotions when I first put it into practice,” Malinin said. “I was so surprised, and I didn’t know what to think. It was the most gratifying feeling I had.”
Determined to quickly attribute this to muscle memory, Malinin did it again and again. In his words, he wanted it to feel like they were on “autopilot” when they tried it in competition.
The plan worked. Malinin doesn’t just land his quad Axels, he does them with ease.
Ilya Malinin achieved a quad Axel on his way to his third consecutive US Championship. 🤯 #PrevagenUSChamps pic.twitter.com/5ypkfKrAON
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) 26 January 2025
“He jumps so high and he gets into the rotation so quickly,” Boitano said. “So he has the altitude, and then he can make another three and a half revolutions when he’s about to reach the summit, and then again when he’s coming down from the summit, and he still gets out with that much extra space before landing. For most people, his blade will be coming around just as it hits the snow. His blade will come around when he’s six inches away from the snow.”
Wagner, who calls his quad Axel “a glitch in the matrix,” believes that Malinin is ideally suited for skating just as Michael Phelps was for swimming.
“I think it wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t been completely prepared for this game,” said Wagner, who covers games for NBC and co-hosts “The Runthrough” podcast. “Ideally you want a slightly inclined foot, … [and] You’ll see athletes who are lean and not too tall, but not too short either. You want a lower center of gravity, this will help. I would say he’s definitely as close as you need to be to having success in this game.”
Boitano doesn’t think someone of his size – with a broad frame of 5 feet 11 inches – would be able to make the jump. Malinin is 5 feet 9 inches tall and has a slim body.
son of Like former Olympic figure skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, Malinin has always been a self-described adrenaline junkie. He likes to do skateboarding and parkour during his rare free time. He incorporates various elements into his programs, including, in addition to all-out quad jumps, his signature “raspberry twist” and a show-stopping backflip. outcome? Two shows that are his own unique blend of artistry – his free skate is set to music featuring his own speaking voice – and technical mastery. He often finishes ahead of the rest of the field by a large margin.
At the World Championships in March, their final combined score of 318.56 was more than 31 points better than everyone else. At last month’s national championships, in which he had a much weaker free skate, Malinin had a 57.26-point lead over second-place finisher Andrew Torgashev. At the November Skate Canada event, her total score was 333.81 – the second highest score ever in international competition – giving her a winning margin of 76.6, the largest score in skating history in any discipline.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Malinin is a strong contender for the gold medal as the individual competition begins in Milan. Like Simone Biles’ dominance in gymnastics, in which teammates Aly Raisman has joked again and again“Second place was first place [for everyone else] because it [was] It’s very hard to beat him,” Malinin is virtually unique at the present time. Barring disaster, it is almost impossible to imagine the Olympic Games without Malinin standing on top of the podium.
Quad God’s routine on day two was tough and brought Team USA the gold medal! #winter Olympics pic.twitter.com/jzk6iSYEko
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) 9 February 2026
Malinin knows this too, but he’s trying not to think too much about it. He told ESPN that he was trying to treat it “like any other competition” and would not be affected by the pressure or the moment. He said he would consider it a successful Olympics, not if he had a medal hanging around his neck, but if he was satisfied with his performance and “had as much fun as possible.”
While everything Malinin does on the ice is exceptional, he won’t need to do anything out of the ordinary to be victorious this week. But for him there is a difference between winning and being satisfied. He doesn’t want to play it safe or slow down his schedule just to get the gold. He looks to leave a lasting impression and there is no doubt that his form is the best it has ever been.
Having previously discussed practicing the once-unheard of quintuple jump – which Boitano said was “not even in my dialogue yet” – Malinin Milan couldn’t stop themselves from teasing the journalists after the practice session When he was asked whether he was ready to perform like this in the competition.
“Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see,” he said, smiling. “I’m thinking about it. Thinking about not doing it, or thinking about doing it. I’m keeping you guys on your toes. …
“Physically, I’m ready. If the time is right, you can see it.”
