US star Ilia Malinin defended his world figure skating title on Saturday with a dominant display on the ice inside Boston’s packed TD Garden.
In truth, Malinin simply made official what many people already thought to be the case; that he is the best figure skater on the planet.
The 20-year-old cruised to the title, capping off his campaign with a scintillating free skate which was greeted by a standing ovation by those inside the arena.
Malinin wowed the crowd with six quadruple jumps to the tune of “I’m Not a Vampire” by Falling In Reverse. He finished his title defense with a season-leading 318.56 points, more than 31 points ahead of Mikhail Shaidorov in second.
However, ever the perfectionist, Malinin somehow wanted more from his routine after he narrowly missed out on landing a planned seventh quadruple jump.
“The home crowd was really inspiring for me, and I am glad that I was able to work out the whole season to get to this moment,” Malinin said after the win.
“It means a lot to me, and I really hope that in future seasons, I can really improve and work on the things that I didn’t accomplish today.”
As Malinin walked out in front of the capacity crowd for his free skate performance, holding a narrow lead after the short program, it felt more like a procession than competition.
The American is so superior to his rivals that only a series of major mistakes could have derailed his title defense, but there was no sign of that as he launched into a quite brilliant routine.
The performance included the mythical quad-axel, a move that he is the only person to ever land in competition, as well as a breathtaking one-footed backflip.
The American was already favorite to win the gold medal at next year’s Winter Olympic and that looks even more likely after his latest performance.
“I’ll spend the offseason trying to master this to make sure that I can be as efficient as I can because for me, I think this is my perfect layout for the Olympics,” Malinin said.
“I really want it to be something that I can complete effortlessly and efficiently with the rest of the components as well.”
Malinin’s gold medal caps off a successful world championships for the US, which also saw Alysa Liu become first American woman in 19 years to win figure skating world title. Madison Chock and Evan Bates also defended their ice dance title, completing a record-breaking week for the US who won three out of the four disciplines at the world championships for the first time.
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