2 months ago
Ilia Malinin claimed a 3rd consecutive world fig skating title connected Saturday afternoon, completing a swift redemption a period aft his daze Olympic collapse pinch a commanding free skate.
The 21-year-old American entered nan last astatine Prague’s O2 Arena pinch a commanding lead after Thursday’s short program, wherever his personal-best 111.29 had put him much than 9 points clear of nan field. This time, location would beryllium nary unraveling.
Skating last, Malinin produced a free programme of 218.11 to decorativeness connected 329.40 points, comfortably up of Japanese rivals Yumi Kagiyama (306.67) and Shun Sato (288.54).
For Malinin, it was a capacity arsenic overmuch astir composure arsenic content. Known arsenic nan Quad God for his unprecedented jumping arsenal, he erstwhile again packed his programme pinch difficulty, landing 5 quadruple jumps, including a quad toe-triple toed operation precocious successful nan program, but it was nan absence of nan errors that defined his Olympic free skate that mattered astir arsenic he came successful astir 23 points up of nan adjacent champion score.
“I decidedly felt very pushed and loved from nan crowd,” Malinin said afterwards. “Every azygous constituent I did, they were each down maine and I felt that nan full measurement done my program.”
A period agone successful Milan, Malinin had arrived arsenic nan overwhelming favourite for gold, only to autumn doubly and tumble to eighth successful 1 of nan biggest upsets successful Olympic fig skating history. In nan aftermath, he admitted nan unit had consumed him, replaying mistakes “24/7” successful nan days that followed.
On Saturday, nan reside was wholly different.
That mindset had been evident from nan commencement of nan week. In nan short program, Malinin attacked his opening quad flip and quad lutz–triple toed operation pinch conviction, drafting a roaring consequence from nan crowd and signaling that nan Olympic disappointment had not lingered.
“My anticipation was to time off nan agelong programme successful 1 portion and I decidedly deliberation that happened,” Malinin quipped afterwards.
Behind him Kagiyama, nan Olympic metallic medalist, delivered different high-quality skate to decorativeness 2nd again, while Sato’s crowd-pleasing free skate repeated his Milano Cortina bronze. Canada’s Stephen Gogolev placed fourt (281.04) up of France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who landed 2 quads but fell connected a 3rd and dropped to 5th (271.56).
Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko (270.42), successful bronze position aft nan short, dropped to sixth. The Americans Andrew Torgashev and Jacob Sanchez placed 10th and 12th, respectively.
The absence of Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov, who like Alysa Liu skipped worlds, near nan spotlight squarely connected Malinin – and this clip nan flaxen-haired American met it without hesitation.
This is simply a processing story.
