Olympic breakout star Ilia Malinin: What Kazakhstan’s skaters and experts say about him
Tengrinews.kz – American figure skater Ilia Malinin topped the men’s event at the Olympics in Italy after the short program. A Tengrinews correspondent looks at what’s behind his success — and whether he has any link to Kazakhstan.
The 21-year-old is one of the biggest stars of these Games. His performances are going viral on social media, and records keep falling one after another.
Even before the Olympics, Malinin had already won two World Championship golds in men’s singles and two in team events. In Milan and Cortina, he has already become an Olympic champion with Team USA and is now pushing hard for individual gold.
What especially stuns viewers are the flips he performs on the ice. Even tennis star Novak Djokovic could not hide his emotions.
???? Milan, Italy ???????? The spectacular backflip by American Ilia Malinin ????????And none other than champion Novak Djokovic in the stands, mouth wide open, cheering! A legendary “Quad God” moment pic.twitter.com/kZ4V7mij5W https://t.co/0hThUH2IH3
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) February 10, 2026
Malinin’s flip at the Olympics: a unique trick?
Malinin performed a flip during the Olympic team event in Italy, becoming the first skater to do it after the ban was lifted.
The element had been banned in figure skating since 1976, after another American skater, Terry Kubicka, performed it.
In 1998 at the Nagano Olympics (Japan), French skater Surya Bonaly landed a backflip despite the ban, triggering a major scandal. The ban was lifted in 2024.
What is Malinin’s secret?
Beyond the spectacular tricks, Malinin is also extremely strong technically. An expert suggests that the influence and standing of the U.S. figure skating federation may also affect scoring.
“Ilia Malinin is very strong technically, very confident, and has enormous support from his federation, which, of course, can also affect judges’ scores. If he skates clean, that’s unquestionable gold,” figure skating expert Akbota Kalmakhan told Tengrinews.
Who is Malinin, and what is his connection to Kazakhstan?
The American Olympic champion was born to Russian figure skaters Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov. Since the 1990s, both represented Uzbekistan internationally and later moved to the United States, where training conditions were better.
Their son Ilia was born in 2004 in Virginia (USA) and started skating from an early age. He initially trained with his parents but later moved to renowned coach Raf Arutyunyan.
It is this coach — who guided Malinin to World and Olympic gold — that creates a link to Kazakhstan. The same specialist also coaches Kazakhstan’s top women’s skater Sofya Samodelkina. During training in the U.S., she met Malinin.
Asked whether Malinin is as “crazy” in real life as he is on the ice — and whether she might try similar tricks — Samodelkina said:
“I’ll think about it — maybe I’ll come up with something, and everything will be agreed with the coach. And about Ilia — I wouldn’t call him crazy. He’s cool, kind, a good, open guy. We met very spontaneously: we started discussing one topic, joined a group, and that was it — that’s how we got acquainted,” Sofya told Tengrinews.kz.
Samodelkina is also set to compete at the Olympics in Italy in the women’s singles event next week.
Can Mikhail Shaidorov challenge Malinin?
So far, the men’s short program has been completed. Malinin leads with 108.16 points. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov is fifth, trailing by almost 17 points with 92.94.
At the most recent World Championships, Shaidorov finished second behind Malinin — the gap was about 30 points (287.47 vs 318.58). It is fair to say fighting for gold against the American will be extremely difficult.
Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram
Публикация от Kazakhstan Olympic Team (@olympickz)
At the same time, Shaidorov still has a real shot at a medal. At that same Worlds, he was third after the short program and trailed Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama by 12 points, but delivered a strong free skate and won a historic silver for Kazakhstan.
Now the gap to Kagiyama, who sits second, is even smaller — 11 points.
“Misha is a gifted athlete in terms of movement and objectively has huge chances for an Olympic medal. Let’s not forget he is the 2025 World Championship silver medalist, the Four Continents champion, and currently third in the world rankings this season. He has one of the most difficult technical layouts at these Games and elements that no one else in the world performs.
Mikhail arrived carrying the weight of being Kazakhstan’s ‘Olympic hope.’ That’s very tough mentally — many can’t handle that pressure — but Misha is doing great. After the short program he is in a good position, his eyes are on fire. I hope he keeps it up and skates the free program the way he can,” the expert said.
The men’s free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy will take place tomorrow, February 13, with the start scheduled for 23:00 Kazakhstan time.
The 21-year-old is one of the biggest stars of these Games. His performances are going viral on social media, and records keep falling one after another.
Even before the Olympics, Malinin had already won two World Championship golds in men’s singles and two in team events. In Milan and Cortina, he has already become an Olympic champion with Team USA and is now pushing hard for individual gold.
What especially stuns viewers are the flips he performs on the ice. Even tennis star Novak Djokovic could not hide his emotions.
???? Milan, Italy ???????? The spectacular backflip by American Ilia Malinin ????????And none other than champion Novak Djokovic in the stands, mouth wide open, cheering! A legendary “Quad God” moment pic.twitter.com/kZ4V7mij5W https://t.co/0hThUH2IH3
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) February 10, 2026
Malinin’s flip at the Olympics: a unique trick?
Malinin performed a flip during the Olympic team event in Italy, becoming the first skater to do it after the ban was lifted.
The element had been banned in figure skating since 1976, after another American skater, Terry Kubicka, performed it.
In 1998 at the Nagano Olympics (Japan), French skater Surya Bonaly landed a backflip despite the ban, triggering a major scandal. The ban was lifted in 2024.
What is Malinin’s secret?
Beyond the spectacular tricks, Malinin is also extremely strong technically. An expert suggests that the influence and standing of the U.S. figure skating federation may also affect scoring.
“Ilia Malinin is very strong technically, very confident, and has enormous support from his federation, which, of course, can also affect judges’ scores. If he skates clean, that’s unquestionable gold,” figure skating expert Akbota Kalmakhan told Tengrinews.
Who is Malinin, and what is his connection to Kazakhstan?
The American Olympic champion was born to Russian figure skaters Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov. Since the 1990s, both represented Uzbekistan internationally and later moved to the United States, where training conditions were better.
Their son Ilia was born in 2004 in Virginia (USA) and started skating from an early age. He initially trained with his parents but later moved to renowned coach Raf Arutyunyan.
It is this coach — who guided Malinin to World and Olympic gold — that creates a link to Kazakhstan. The same specialist also coaches Kazakhstan’s top women’s skater Sofya Samodelkina. During training in the U.S., she met Malinin.
Asked whether Malinin is as “crazy” in real life as he is on the ice — and whether she might try similar tricks — Samodelkina said:
“I’ll think about it — maybe I’ll come up with something, and everything will be agreed with the coach. And about Ilia — I wouldn’t call him crazy. He’s cool, kind, a good, open guy. We met very spontaneously: we started discussing one topic, joined a group, and that was it — that’s how we got acquainted,” Sofya told Tengrinews.kz.
Samodelkina is also set to compete at the Olympics in Italy in the women’s singles event next week.
Can Mikhail Shaidorov challenge Malinin?
So far, the men’s short program has been completed. Malinin leads with 108.16 points. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov is fifth, trailing by almost 17 points with 92.94.
At the most recent World Championships, Shaidorov finished second behind Malinin — the gap was about 30 points (287.47 vs 318.58). It is fair to say fighting for gold against the American will be extremely difficult.
Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram
Публикация от Kazakhstan Olympic Team (@olympickz)
At the same time, Shaidorov still has a real shot at a medal. At that same Worlds, he was third after the short program and trailed Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama by 12 points, but delivered a strong free skate and won a historic silver for Kazakhstan.
Now the gap to Kagiyama, who sits second, is even smaller — 11 points.
“Misha is a gifted athlete in terms of movement and objectively has huge chances for an Olympic medal. Let’s not forget he is the 2025 World Championship silver medalist, the Four Continents champion, and currently third in the world rankings this season. He has one of the most difficult technical layouts at these Games and elements that no one else in the world performs.
Mikhail arrived carrying the weight of being Kazakhstan’s ‘Olympic hope.’ That’s very tough mentally — many can’t handle that pressure — but Misha is doing great. After the short program he is in a good position, his eyes are on fire. I hope he keeps it up and skates the free program the way he can,” the expert said.
The men’s free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy will take place tomorrow, February 13, with the start scheduled for 23:00 Kazakhstan time.