Ilia Malinin's backflip doesn't count for any points, but the U.S. figure skater does it anyway at Olympics

Ilia Malinin is the only figure skater you'll see do a backflip at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Must be worth a lot of points for the United States superstar, right? 

Well, not exactly.

It's actually worth nothing.

The only way it would matter in the scoring is if Malinin failed to land the backflip. A fall would deduct him points.

Malinin does the backflip entirely for the vibes. It's incredible.

I love that the backflip doesn’t even count for any points Ilia Malinin just does it for the love of the game https://t.co/mIAuyW33BA

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In the past, judges actually deducted points for doing a backflip at all. It was an automatic negative.

No one ever did one in those days, unless they were so far out of contention that they just wanted to try something cool.

Now, Malinin does this move, and his topsy-turvy "Raspberry Twist," just because he can.

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It's the kind of move that fires Malinin up, and gets the crowd going. Malinin rarely goes a routine without one of the zero-point moves.

Figure skating scoring has a very limited array of moves that actually get points. Just because Malinin can push the limits of the sport doesn't mean he actually gets rewarded for every maneuver.

He isn't going to stop backflipping anytime soon, though. It's simply too fun.

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