HALIFAX — When Ilia Malinin stunned the crowd with his world championship performance in Montreal last March, he left the competition with much more than a gold medal hanging around his neck.
The American figure skating star also took home a new sense of the heights he could reach.
"Before I was not really so sure of what my skill level was and where I can push it," Malinin said. "But now I'm starting to really figure it out."
If Malinin is only figuring it out now, his competition should be worried. He landed six quad jumps — including his unmatched quad axel — to post a record-breaking free program in Montreal.
The 19-year-old phenom, who’s back north of the border at Skate Canada International this weekend, revealed after worlds that he’d been fighting a left foot injury that almost kept him out of the competition.
"I was not even so sure if I'd go," he said. "So I pat myself on the back for that whole, three-four weeks before and at worlds. That just shows how strong I am as a person and inside.
"And ever since that, I just got a lot more discipline and energy to just keep pushing myself."
But with that historic showing comes heightened expectations that Malinin is still learning to handle.
He felt it last week at Skate America, where he had to alter his free skate on the fly because of an early mistake, though he won his third consecutive title anyway.
Now in Halifax for his second Grand Prix after a very quick turnaround between competitions, he’s sensing it again.
"I feel a little more pressure from being the world champion," Malinin said. "I'm going to have to try to find a new tactic to take that on so that I don't feel as pressured or nervous."
Another thing Malinin is working on is his artistry. The "Quad God’s" technical abilities are unparalleled on an ice surface, but he acknowledged other areas need improvement.
"This year I think the main goal was to try to do something outside of my box, to really try to get that artistic and that creativeness and really just stick to that component mark," he said.
Not only is Malinin back on Canadian soil, he's returning to a location that has a significant place in his family history.
Malinin’s mother, Tatiana Malinina, and father, Roman Skorniakov, competed for Uzbekistan at the inaugural Four Continents Championships in Halifax in 1999.
Malinin only learned a few days ago that his mother had captured gold on the same ice where he's hoping to triumph.
"We were in the car and they're like, 'Oh, I competed here and however long ago it was,'" he said. "It's kind of cool. I feel like it's kind of a historical place.
"I guess that was expected when I started to get into figure skating, that over time I would start being at the same place as my parents were skating at. For them, it might be like a cool deja-vu moment."
BETTER START
Canada’s Roman Sadovsky is already off to a better start this season — but the bar was low after a strange string of events derailed the first half of last season.
The 25-year-old men’s skater began last season with an ankle injury. He then missed one event because he lost his luggage, including his skates, on his way to the Warsaw Cup, and another when his plane couldn’t land due to a snowstorm. He didn’t do a full competition until nationals in January.
This season, he has two competitions under his belt heading into Skate Canada.
"We're already, like, 10 steps ahead from last season, so that's pretty exciting,” he said. "The whole goal was just getting more competition exposure and building, instead of just showing up at nationals all of a sudden."
BACKFLIPS?
This season, backflips are no longer banned by the International Skating Union. Malinin has already added them to his repertoire, and a quick survey of Canadian skaters shows others may follow suit.
“I've always wanted to," Canadian women's champion Kaiya Ruiter said. "Even just for a show, like OK, yeah, in an exhibition, I want to try that. But now that it's in the rules, like, go for it!"
Sadkovsky would also like to learn one, but he isn’t sure about pulling it off with his six-foot-one frame can fold backwards safely in competition.
"I don't know -- I feel like I'm a little tall," he said. "I'm going to hold off for now.
"I don't think we're gonna see a huge increase in people doing it, maybe for the first year or two, and then it'll just fizzle out -- people will be like, 'yeah, backflips.'"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press