ST. LOUIS — Ilia Malinin won his fourth consecutive U.S. figure skating championship on Saturday, the “Quad God” bringing the crowd to its feet in his final competition before he makes his Olympic debut at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.
The free skate earned him a 209.78, bringing his championship-winning score to 324.88, a whopping 57.26 points ahead of second-place Andrew Torgashev and 75.72 points ahead of third-place Maxim Naumov. Malinin, who’s been breaking in new skates, did three quad jumps in his free skate, what he called playing it safe.
“I was coming into this one, I was a little unsure what I was gonna do, so I decided not to go for any risks and I wanted to play it safe because I know that hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have to go again,’ he said.
He said he will ‘really try to get comfortable with (the new skates), and I’m sure in a few weeks they’ll be in perfect condition, so I’m really looking forward to that process.”
Earlier Saturday, the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates captured their seventh national title, an all-time record. It’s their fifth consecutive championship and it propels them to their fourth Olympic games together. U.S. Figure Skating will announce the 2026 Olympic team on Sunday.
‘The feeling that we got from the audience today was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,’ Chock said after, tears welling in her eyes. ‘It felt so special, I felt so much love and joy and I’m so grateful for this moment to share with everyone here and to share with Evan. It’s been the most incredible, incredible career. Couldn’t have asked for anything more.’
Watch our exclusive conversation with Ilia Malinin in the debut episode of ourMilan Magic Olympics podcast. Subscribe and listen:Apple Podcasts |Spotify |Amazon
Check out all the results and highlights from Day 4 of nationals below.
US figure skating championships results, standings
Here are the overall men’s standings.
- Ilia Malinin: 324.88
- Andrew Torgashev: 267.62
- Maxim Naumov: 249.16
- Jacob Sanchez: 249.07
- Tomoki Hiwatashi: 247.24
- Liam Kapeikis: 235.13
- Daniel Martynov: 229.95
- Jason Brown: 227.52
- Lucius Kazanecki: 227.07
- Kai Kovar: 225.75
- Jimmy Ma: 225.71
- Lorenzo Elano: 213.34
- Goku Endo: 203.42
- Michael Xie: 196.78
- Samuel Mindra: 190.04
- Emmanuel Savary: 188.14
- Will Annis: 175.80
- Ken Mikawa: 145.91
Here are the free skate scores.
- Ilia Malinin: 209.78 total segment score, 116.17 technical elements score, 93.61 program components score.
- Andrew Torgashev: 182.63 total segment score, 95.69 technical elements score, 86.94 program components score.
- Jacob Sanchez: 167.80 total segment score, 85.24 technical elements score, 82.56 program components score.
- Maxim Naumov: 163.44 total segment score, 80.08 technical elements score, 83.36 program components score.
- Tomoki Hiwatashi: 157.98 total segment score, 76.29 technical elements score, 81.69 program components score.
- Liam Kapeikis: 156.27 total segment score, 79.46 technical elements score, 76.81 program components score.
- Lucius Kazanecki: 151.35 total segment score, 78.95 technical elements score, 72.40 program components score.
- Jimmy Ma: 150.15 total segment score, 73.96 technical elements score, 77.19 program components score.
- Kai Kovar: 148.84 total segment score, 73.41 technical elements score, 75.43 program components score.
- Daniel Martynov: 148.32 total segment score, 73.56 technical elements score, 75.76 program components score.
- Lorenzo Elano: 141.69 total segment score, 69.19 technical elements score, 73.50 program components score.
- Jason Brown: 139.03 total segment score, 58.98 technical elements score, 82.05 program components score.
- Michael Xie: 136.83 total segment score, 72.40 technical elements score, 64.43 program components score.
- Goku Endo: 130.74 total segment score, 56.91 technical elements score, 73.83 program components score.
- Emmanuel Savary: 127.93 total segment score, 59.63 technical elements score, 70.30 program components score.
- Samuel Mindra: 125.02 total segment score, 53.76 technical elements score, 71.26 program components score.
- Will Annis: 120.85 total segment score, 56.27 technical elements score, 64.58 program components score.
- Ken Mikawa: 94.22 total segment score, 40.04 technical elements score, 55.18 program components score.
Ilia Malinin ‘Quad God’ nickname
Simply put, Ilia Malinin has the greatest array of jumps any figure skater in history has ever possessed. He’s launched himself into the air for seven quadruple jumps in a single long program at last month’s Grand Prix Final and was the first skater to land a quad Axel.
Malinin’s username used to be Lutz God, but he changed it to Quad God after landing his first quad jump.
“I didn’t think much about it … Days go by and people started asking, ‘Why’d you name yourself Quad God, you only landed one jump,’’ he said on Milan Magic, USA TODAY’s new Olympics podcast that drops its first episode Saturday. ‘And then I was like, ‘Oh, OK maybe I should be come a Quad God.’ From there I found my rhythm of landing quad after quad after quad and then of course landing the first quad axel.”
“In the most humble way possible, I think it’s definitely helped my confidence in not only to skating in general but just feeling like I deserve to be recognized as who I am.”
Andrew Torgashev dazzles, then gets pizza
We’ve reached the point of the lineup where the fight is on for the final men’s spots in the Olympics, and Andrew Torgashev made his case with a big statement.
He had an exceptional skate, starting with two quad toeloops to get the rhythm going and closing it with a tough choreo sequence. He got a standing ovation, and then got a box of pizza to celebrate it.
He received a season-best 182.63, and is now in first with a combined score of 267.62.
Jacob Sanchez’s emotional free skate
The future is bright for Jacob Sanchez, as the 18-year-old put on an exceptional performance in his free skate to take first place through Group 2. He began to cry once he completed his program as the crown serenaded him with an ovation. He was then greeted by his family just outside the rink as they waved their Puerto Rican flags.
Sanchez has had a meteoric rise since joining the senior ranks in November 2024, putting himself in the conversation for the third and final men’s spot on the Olympic team. Regardless of whether he makes it, Sanchez is making a name for himself and will be one to watch in the next Olympic cycle.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates win 7th US figure skating championship
Madison Chock and Evan Bates have another ice dance record.
The husband-and-wife duo have been on the podium at U.S. nationals every year since 2013. They have won five straight ice dance titles. And now they hold the record for most U.S. titles of all time, breaking a tie with Meryl Davis and Charlie White for most all-time.
‘The feeling that we got from the audience today was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,’ Chock said after, tears welling in her eyes. ‘It felt so special, I felt so much love and joy and I’m so grateful for this moment to share with everyone here and to share with Evan. It’s been the most incredible, incredible career. Couldn’t have asked for anything more.’
Ultimately, their free dance yielded a double-digit victory — a program score of 137.17 and a total score of 228.87, 15.22 points than the second place team of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik.
It’s just the latest feat in what’s been a dominant season for the married couple. Since the start of 2025, they have won all but one of the seven competitions they entered, including winning the Grand Prix final in December for the third straight year.
The couple’s return to the Winter Olympics is all but official, making Milano Cortina their fourth Games. The only thing that’s eludes them in their decorated careers is that ice dance Olympic medal after finishing just short of the podium in 2022.
Ilia Malinin’s parents
Malinin was born into figure skating. His mother, Tatiana Malinina, is from the Soviet Union, Siberia specifically, and competed at 10 consecutive world figure skating championships for Uzbekistan. She finished eighth at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the competition in which Tara Lipinski won the gold medal and Michelle Kwan the silver. Malinina finished fourth at the 1999 world championships as well, and she also competed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, but withdrew after the short program with the flu.
Malinin’s father, Roman Skorniakov, represented Uzbekistan at the same two Olympics, 1998 and 2002, finishing 19th both times. He and Malinina were married in 2000 and became skating coaches in the United States, moving to the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where, in December 2004, Ilia was born. He took the Russian masculine form of his mother’s last name because his parents were concerned that Skorniakov was too difficult to pronounce.
Who is on the US Olympic figure skating team?
The team will be named on Sunday at 2 p.m. Three men and three women singles skaters will be chosen, as will three ice dance teams and two pairs, 16 athletes in all. The USFS selection process includes past performances, focusing on the athlete’s body of work over the past two seasons.
Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito are roster locks, as are Madison Chock and Evan Bates. That leaves two spots open on the men’s side, two ice dance team spots and both pairs spots.
How does Ilia Malinin train for his quad jumps?
Malinin shared with Christine Brennan and Brian Boitano on Milan Magic, USA TODAY’s new Olympics podcast that drops its first episode Saturday, that he likes to skate a full program at least once a day, but that doesn’t mean every jump in that practice session must be a quad. It depends on how his body feels.
“For me, at least the standard base can be all triple jumps, just to keep that stamina, just to keep that stamina in there. But then, of course, depending on how I feel or how the training is going, then I can say, ‘Maybe tomorrow I can go for a full quad layout or maybe do a full quad and the rest can be triples.’
“I think the main focus for me is just running the whole program in itself with all the jumps, all the spins and really just getting that muscle memory in your head because I think a lot of the times, especially with me, if I do a certain amount of triple jumps and I feel comfortable with it, then I can go and the quad jumps will get a little easier for me because I’ve been practicing that muscle memory for a while.”
Ice dance overall standings
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates: 228.87
- Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik: 213.65
- Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko: 206.95
- Caroline Green and Michael Parsons: 202.05
- Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville: 197.29
- Oona Brown and Gage Brown: 194.31
- Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski: 186.60
- Leah Neset and Artem Markelov: 176.46
- Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani: 173.17
- Amy Cui and Jonathan Rogers: 172.39
- Eva Pate and Logan Bye: 170.49
- Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal: 169.60
- Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov: 166.62
- Isabella Flores and Linus Colmor: 160.75
- Vanessa Pham and Anton Spiridonov: 158.62
Here are the free dance scores.
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates: 137.17 total segment score, 77.89 technical elements score, 59.28 program components score.
- Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik: 127.67 total segment score, 72.17 technical elements score, 55.50 program components score.
- Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko: 123.66 total segment score, 69.24 technical elements score, 54.42 program components score.
- Oona Brown and Gage Brown: 118.59 total segment score, 67.15 technical elements score, 51.44 program components score.
- Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville: 117.86 total segment score, 66.38 technical elements score, 51.48 program components score.
- Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski: 111.61 total segment score, 62.33 technical elements score, 49.28 program components score.
- Leah Neset and Artem Markelov: 105.18 total segment score, 57.74 technical elements score, 47.44 program components score.
- Amy Cui and Jonathan Rogers: 104.79 total segment score, 59.23 technical elements score, 45.56 program components score.
- Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani: 101.93 total segment score, 54.63 technical elements score, 47.30 program components score.
- Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov: 101.47 total segment score, 57.27 technical elements score, 44.20 program components score.
- Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal: 100.00 total segment score, 55.38 technical elements score, 44.62 program components score.
- Vanessa Pham and Anton Spiridonov: 97.21 total segment score, 54.07 technical elements score, 43.14 program components score.
- Eva Pate and Logan Bye: 96.95 total segment score, 51.15 technical elements score, 46.80 program components score.
- Isabella Flores and Linus Colmor Jepsen: 94.38 total segment score, 51.44 technical elements score, 42.94 program components score.
- Caroline Green and Michael Parsons: 121.50 total segment score, 68.06 technical elements score, 53.44 program components score.
Ice dancing vs. figure skating
Ice dancing does not feature jumps or lifts, like you see figure skating pairs execute. Ice dancing is made up of two segments, the rhythm dance and the free dance.
How does Ilia Malinin come up with his programs?
It takes an innovative mind to be as sensational as Malinin, and his creative process is far from ordinary. He said much of it comes from his love of gymnastics and acrobatics, which is the reason why he’s able to perform so much stunning jumps.
“It really pushes me to push the envelope in skating, not only just in a performance aspect, but also give it even more athleticism, other than all the jumps, all the spins and all of the hard things,” he said. “It gives me a lot of fun, but at the same time, I feel like it’s very useful for the sport to bring in something new, so everyone has something unique to watch.”
When do 2026 Winter Olympics start?
The opening ceremony for the Milano Cortina Games is Feb. 6. The closing ceremony is Feb. 22.
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