Magical Ilia Malinin channels figure skating royalty to land second Skate America title
BySportsbeat
Updated 22/10/2023 at 19:27 GMT
Ilia Malinin followed in the footsteps of some figure skating icons as he became just the fifth man to break the 300 point barrier in an international competition. The Virginia-born star, 18, racked up a brilliant personal best score to grab his second consecutive Skate America title in Texas, beating France's Kevin Aymoz and Japan's Sato Shun in second and third respectively.
Kevin Aymoz of France, Ilia Malinin of United States, and Shun Sato of Japan pose with their medals after the Men's Free Skate during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating - Skate America at Credit Union of Texas Events Center on October 21, 2023.
Image credit: Getty Images
Ilia Malinin says channelling inspiration from the pantheon of figure skating greats fired him to a second consecutive Skate America title in Texas.
The Virginia-born star, 18, racked up a brilliant personal best score without even requiring the use of his trademark quadruple Axel, the widely regarded hardest jump in the sport he became the first and only skater to land in Lake Placid last year.
Dancing in Saturday's free skate to music from TV drama Succession, Malinin landed four other quad jumps to grab a haul of 310.47 points and beat his previous best by over 20 points.
Frenchman Kevin Aymoz trailed in second over 30 points behind as Japanese ace Sato Shun bagged bronze.
Malinin has been studying the performances of former Olympic champions Yuzuru Hanyu, 28, and Nathan Chen, 24, and reckons replicating some of their tricks on the ice proved pivotal at Allen's Union of Texas Event Centre.
The American, whose parents skated at the Olympics for Uzbekistan, said: "I did not think that it was a flawless long program and I didn't expect that [high of a] score.
"One of the things that I did was I looked at other skaters and their best performances in the past, like Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen.
"I just took some pieces of their programs and sort of how they attacked the ice and how they really approached the audience from there and tried to use it in my own way."
Malinin's dazzling display makes him only the fifth man to break the 300 point barrier at an international competition, following in the footsteps of figure skating royalty, including Hanyu, Chen and Olympic silver medallists Shoma Uno and Yuma Kagiyama.
And there could be even more magic to come when he soon descends on December's Grand Prix Final in Beijing.
Elsewhere, Belgian world bronze medallist Loena Hendrickx led the women's short programme ahead of Americans Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito while in the rhythm dance, world champions world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates currently top the standings.
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