Ilia rises to new heights with figure skating at the world championships in Mali

MONTREAL – Let the skating apotheosis of Ilia Mali begin.

So why not? In four minutes on Saturday night, the 19-year-old Virginian took her sport to unprecedented heights, climbing from third place to the podium at the world championships after the short program.

His free skate earned the highest score in history. He landed an unprecedented six clean quad jumps, including his trademark quad Axel and two quads that opened up the combinations well in the second half of his program.

When he made the final jumper with about 20 seconds left, the crowd rose to their feet and booed. The noise grew louder and louder until it stopped.

Figure Skating Worlds: Results

“It was amazing to hear the crowd go wild,” Malinin said.

When he finished, Malin put his head in his hands, as amazed as anyone at the Bell Center was by what he had done. He then fell flat on his back in joy.

“I couldn’t even contain myself, it was so emotional for me,” she said. “I’m still in shock. I still can’t believe I did it. It’s just incredible.”

After Thursday’s short program, Mali said he was in doubt because of a left leg injury. He said he was thinking of staying home.

“There was a little voice in my head that said, ‘You have to keep fighting, no matter how good or bad you feel, you have to keep going,'” Malinin said. “You just have to know what you’re capable of and stick to your muscle memory.”

Note that Malinin was capable of: quadruple Axel, quadruple Lutz, quadruple loop, quadruple Salchow, quadruple lutz-half loop-triple Salchow, quadruple loop-triple leg loop, triple lutz-triple Axel sequence. This plus excellent component scores (9.07 average) resulted in a free skate score of 227.79, surpassing Nathan Chen’s 2019 record of 224.92.

Mali’s total score of 333.76 is second only to Chen’s 335.30 in history.

After a few points behind Japan’s Shoma Uno and Yuma Kagiyama, Malin won the run, third after the short program. Kagiyama was second with 309.65, while France’s Adam Siao Him Fa won the bronze medal with an amazing jump from 19th with 284.39 after the short program.

USA’s Jason Brown finished fifth, one place shy of the world’s best. Uno, who has won the last two world championships and the short program here, weakened badly and fell to fourth place.

“After the short program, it seemed to me that now there is a chance, you are completely out of it,” Malinin said.

In the short program, he felt a bit out of sorts and didn’t attempt the quadruple Axel (which he only attempted once in the short program). He wasn’t sure about trying it freely until he got the starting position.

“When I hit the quadruple Axel, I definitely felt confident,” Malinin said. “After the first four jump passes (all fours), I really felt like it could happen.”

Mali’s gold, which came just hours after Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the ice dance, marked the first time U.S. skaters won two of four events at a world meet since Michelle Kwan and Todd Eldredge won the individual titles in 1996.

Olympic silver medalist Kagiyama, 20, admitted he didn’t know how he could beat Malini, who skated the way he did on Saturday.

“If we both perform at 100% of our ability, I don’t think I can win,” Kagiyama said.

Siao Him Fa, who thought she was one of the likely medal contenders about three hours before the free skate, turned in a dazzling performance that took her from 19th place to the bronze medal shortly after. He also gave raspberries to the sports officials.

Reigning European champion Siao Him Fa failed all three jump passes in the short distance, then came back with four clean quads and an error-free free skate.

He ended up doing a backflip in a crowd-pleasing move that was banned by the International Skating Union. Siao Him Fa, 23, has been outspoken in demanding that ISU allow the leap to increase the sport’s appeal to his generation. He also won the European Championship held in January.

He did so at the cost of a two-point deduction, but his free skate score, 206.90, still ranked second out of 24 competitors.

“It’s for fun, it’s for the audience,” Siao Him Fa said. “I had nothing to lose, so I told myself to go.”

Mali has been seen as the future of men’s figure skating since becoming the first to compete in the quad Axel in the fall of 2022. He won a bronze medal at last year’s world meet, a gold at the Grand Prix Final this season and two consecutive US titles.

Where can Mali go from here as he nears the limits of his sport? High five jumps? Quadruple combinations?

“As always, I’ll leave it as a surprise,” Malin said with a smile.

Philip Hersh, figure skater at the last 12 Winter Olympics, makes a special contribution. NBCSports.com.