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It's hard not to notice Ilia Malinin. The American figure skater is a swaggering presence on the ice, filled with whimsy, flexibility, creativity and trampoline-like leaps.
Malinin comes to life when he's twirling. Yes, he has a number of tricks in his toolkit, from inch-perfect Salchows to depth-defying backflips.
But Malinin is known best known for his quadruple axel, an athletic feat that is as dangerous as it is eye-catching.
The move sees a skater land with the force of "five to 10 times their body weight", according to The Washington Post. No skater has landed it in international competition. Well, no skater except for Malinin.
With that, here's what you need to know about Malinin's prowess for the quadruple axel, a trick he landed for the first time in 2022.
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First quadruple axel in figure skating
The quadruple axel represented something of a fairy tale in the figure-skating world, a fanciful act that would have looked out of place in a simulation, let alone real life.
The devil is in the details with the move, which sees a skater leap with one foot while facing forward, spin four-and-a-half revolutions, and land on the opposite foot. The dance is an anomaly, even among elite skaters. After all, a triple axel is no gimmie.
“I never thought I’d see anybody do a quadruple axel,” said 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton, according to the Associated Press. “Not in my lifetime.”
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Prior to Malinin's leap of faith, the quadruple axel had been attempted before. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu fell just short of the feat during the 2022 Winter Games. Facing a tough road back to medal contention following a miscue-filled short program, Hanyu dug his left foot into the ice. He sprang towards the rafters, tucking his forearms to rotate through the wintery breeze.
Hanyu spun one, two, three, four times over. But he couldn't complete the final half-rotation, tumbling to the ice in a heap. He went on to finish fourth in the event.
Malinin did him one better seven months later. The Virginia native, then 17 at the time, took the ice in Lake Placid, New York for the CS U.S. International Classic. It was a sleepy affair, far from the glow of Olympic rings and World Championships jewelry.
It was the perfect setting for Malinin to strike gold. During his gold-medal-winning free skate routine, Malinin took flight. One, two, three, four revolutions followed. Then, the final half rotation. Malinin landed as elegantly as he entered. The concourses erupted as Malinin made his way across the ice.
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“It felt really good. When I’m practicing it, it’s pretty easy for me to figure out how to get the right timing and everything to have it be a good attempt,” Malinin said of completing the jump.
“To do it in competition is a different story because you have nerves and pressure that can get in the way of that. So I have to treat it like I’m at home and it feels pretty good … I had an idea for trying it for a little while now. March or April was when I really started to work on the technique and try to improve it … [Yuzuru Hanyu] definitely inspired me to try it here.”
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Malinin has kept the acrobatics going since then, making the move a staple in his repertoire. He completed the quadruple axel at the 2023 World Championships, 2023 Grand Prix Final, 2024 World Championships and 2024 Grand Prix Final.
During the 2025 World Championships, Malinin became the first skater to land all six jumps -- toe loop, Salchow, loop, flip, Lutz and axel -- as quadruples in the same program.
Armed with his signature jump, Malinin is the best men's figure skater in the world. It'll be hard to wrestle that title away from him anytime soon.
English (US)