Vienna's Ilia Malinin Sets New Record Score, Wins World Championship

VIENNA, VA — Ilia Malinin, a Marshall High School graduate from Vienna, continues to set records and impress at figure skating competitions.

On Saturday, Malinin won the World Figure Skating Championship in Montreal with a new record score in the free skate — 227.79. The 19-year-old broke fellow American Nathan Chen's 2019 free skate record of 224.92. Malinin earned a total score of 333.76, topping Japan's Kagiyama Yuma and France's Adam Siao Him Fa, according to Olympics.com. This was Malinin's first world title.

Malinin completed six quadruple jumps, including one quadruple axel. He became the first and only figure skater to complete the quadruple axel in competition in fall 2022. The quadruple axle is considered figure skating's most difficult move.

After the routine, he fell to the ice in reaction to his performance and cheers from the crowd.

"To hear the crowd go wild when I didn’t even finish my program yet is just an incredible experience," Malinin said, according to the Associated Press. "It was so amazing to me. I couldn’t even hold myself up, it was just that emotional to me."

Malinin could be in the running for the U.S. team in the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics after not being selected for the 2022 Beijing Olympics team despite placing second at the 2022 national championship. The self-proclaimed "Quadg0d" began figure skating in 2010 under the guidance of his Olympic skater parents, who both competed for Uzbekistan, and started competing in 2015. The 19-year-old is affiliated with the Washington Figure Skating Club and trains in Reston.