Ilya Mali’s figure skating season led to this: the chance to become the first world champion

MONTREAL – An international young man of skating mystery and prowess sat in a hotel lobby Tuesday evening, a smile on his forever boyish face and who knows what surprises his 19-year-old mind has in store for the world championships.

Will he have a quadruple Axel in his short program when the men’s competition begins on Thursday? (The only time he did so was when he won the Grand Prix Final in December.)

Two quadruple axels in a free skate? (He talked about it earlier in the season.)

A quadruple combination? (He amused himself by trying other quad combinations, such as a quadruple quadruple Axel and a second jump, quadruple Salchow, or quadruple quadruple.)

All six types of quads in the free skate, rumored to limit the number of quads before upcoming rule changes?

We won’t know until the music starts. Malinin may not know until the last warm-up.

“That’s what I like to do, keep things surprising, very attractive for others to follow,” he said, his smile turning mischievous. “Then people would say, ‘Oh, what’s he going to do now?’

Could there be something as remarkable (for Mali) as his second successful quadruple loop in the competition? (The first came in the Grand Prix Final.)

“Not together,” he said, laughing.

Two quadruple Axels in the free skate?

“It’s probably more for the future,” he said. “It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to adding. Hopefully, if nothing changes from here on in terms of the rules, I can (try to).”

Last year’s world championship bronze medalist Mali ruled out any foursome combination because the reward (in points) did not outweigh the risk.

“For now, they’re just for fun,” he said. “They take a lot of energy and are really difficult elements. Even if I have a chance to land them, they have to be very valuable for me to compete. My main focus now is to polish the finer details in my programs.”

Even with Mali being the only contender, his base value (12.5 points) is just one point higher than quad Lutz, so even quad Axel barely understands the risk-reward scale. His success rate is now over 50 percent (7 out of 12).

In some ways, the jump has become an albatross. If he pulls it off, the audience (and judges?) may be disappointed.

“I know a lot of people want me to do it, but I do it based on my feelings,” he said. “If I’m not feeling it today, I’m not going to risk it for people because it’s going to affect me. “If I fall badly, I won’t be able to do it for a while.”

Landing in a clear spot can also be difficult to manage in a hurry.

“I shouldn’t let my emotions get in the way,” he said. “A lot of people rave about it. They want to take you down, so of course the crowd will go crazy. But you still have the rest of the program to complete.”

In his pre-season media conference, Malin spoke of minimizing risk until necessary. “My plan was to start the season slow,” he said Tuesday, “and then add more jumps and make it harder and harder.”

And he stuck to it, limiting himself to just (!) four executed quads in his first two Grand Prix free skates, no four axles, winning Skate America and finishing second to Frenchman Xiao Him Fa at the French Grand Prix. .

Then she pulled out all the stops at the Mali Grand Prix Final, landing a quadruple Axel in the short and six quadruple attempts in the freestyle (five clean), including a circuit, Axel (fall) and two quadruple opening combinations.

The result was his biggest ever victory, a personal best in both programs and a 17-point win over two-time world champion Shoma Uno of Japan. This cemented Mali’s status as a gold medal contender for the worlds.

“I know I can come out on top if I give my best,” Malinin told reporters after Tuesday’s practice. “At the same time, there’s a lot of pressure for me to nail every element to make sure I don’t make any mistakes, big or small.”

At the U.S. Championships in January, Malin made three such errors, and he still won his second national title with 30 points. He chalked up some of the flaws to problems with his skate boots and continued on, insisting he wasn’t disappointed.

“It was things I couldn’t control,” he said, referring to the opening problems. “And I knew nationals wasn’t a priority for me because I wanted to leave enough energy and effort to put into worlds.”

He spent some of his time doing ice shows in Switzerland and Italy, where nationals took away from the competitive mentality.

“It’s good to get a little mental break,” Malinin said. “It takes your mind off of training seriously, but you’re still skating and you’re still thinking about the sport.”

Mali’s also college courses, two final semesters at George Mason University, one online course this semester (economics), get a different perspective with an extensive spring travel schedule. He plans to do some shows in Japan after the Stars on Ice Canada and world shows.

Perhaps if everything goes well for Malinin this week, the show’s hosts will introduce him as the “reigning world champion.”

“One of the biggest things I want to achieve in my career is to have at least one world title,” he said. “I feel like I’m really ready and ready to go for it.”

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