Ilia Malinin looks invincible to his top rival at figure skating worlds

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Ilia Malinin looks invincible to his top rival at figure skating worlds

BOSTON - Yuma Kagiyama was smiling when he said it, as if he were trying to lighten the meaning of his words and the implication they carried about the weight of the challenge for any figure skater trying to compete with Ilia Malinin.

After Thursday’s short program at the World Championships, when he finished a close second to reigning world champion Malinin, Kagiyama was asked what impresses him most about the man known as Quadg0d.

“He does all those difficult jumps, and he makes them look effortless,” Japan’s Kagiyama said through a translator. “Maybe he is putting (out) effort, but to us, it looks effortless and really easy.

“And it’s not just his jumps. I feel like his skating and his artistry, his expression is getting better year by year, so I’m starting to think he’s invincible.”

Invincible.

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Ilia Malinin draws closer to his definition of perfection with third U.S. figure skating title

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Ilia Malinin draws closer to his definition of perfection with third U.S. figure skating title

WICHITA, Kansas – Ilia Malinin doesn’t back down.

When all of his jumping passes at last month’s Grand Prix Final were judged to contain under-rotation, he still had a sweatshirt made that reproduced the scoresheet, a memento of his having tried a free skate program with unprecedented difficulty.

And it was a program he had never previously tried in practice.

Hubris?

Nah. Just the quadg0d being himself.

“I really like to push my physical limits and just challenge myself,” he said.

When he could have easily won a third straight U.S. title Sunday with a safely watered-down program, Malinin instead rolled out the same one he used in the Grand Prix Final, packed with the same unprecedented jumping difficulty.

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Ilia Malinin dominant again in nationals short program

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Ilia Malinin dominant again in nationals short program

WICHITA, Kansas -- Figure skaters often say they are competing only against themselves.

That certainly has become the case for Ilia Malinin at the Prevagen U.S. Championships.

The reigning world champion is simply in a league by himself on the national level.

He showed that again in Saturday’s short program, winning by 19.14 points, with Andrew Torgashev second and Jimmy Ma third, 3.03 points behind Torgashev.  It is a record margin for the men’s short program winner at nationals.

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Making World Championships put Andrew Torgashev ahead of his skating game plan

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Making World Championships put Andrew Torgashev ahead of his skating game plan

The season wasn’t supposed to go this way for Andrew Torgashev.

Torgashev came into it hoping only to remind everyone he was not done competing after two straight seasons lost to a lingering foot injury, to show that a one-time phenom who had won the U.S. junior title eight years ago at age 13 could get back in the mix with the top American men.

“I was planning to get back to training after nationals and come back to competition with more quads next season in hopes to make the world team,” he said.

His coach, Rafael Arutunian, had the same plan.

Both were duly surprised when Torgashev won the free skate at the U.S. Championships, finished third overall behind Ilia Malinin and Jason Brown, and was provisionally named with them to the U.S. team for next week’s world championships in Saitama, Japan.

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