“It was okay”: The “four-time god” delivers a spectacle for gold

“It was okay”
The “four-time god” provides a spectacle for gold

30.03.2025, 10:25 a.m.

Six four-way jumps and a backward salto: figure skating superstar Ilia Malinin conjures up at the World Cup in his home country. He doesn’t give the competition a chance. Germany’s best does not even make it to the final.

Figure skaters Ilia Malinin has successfully defended his World Cup title with an inimitable jump show in Boston. The 20-year-old American with the nickname “Vierfig-Gott” delighted the spectators in the sold-out TD Garden with a strong freestyle. Malinin landed six four -way jumps and crowned his idea with a backward salo.

It was not enough for the world record (333.76 points), which he had set up in his World Cup triumph last year, because he failed at Lutz. Nevertheless, his lead with 318.56 points on the Kazakh Mikhail Schadorow (287.47) and the Japanese Yuma Kagiyama (278.19) was huge. Malinin had already led after the short program.

“It was okay,” he summed up sober after his success: “I was glad that I was able to train all season to reach this moment.” Malinin was the only runner to be a four -time Axel, but his plan of seven four -way jumps in a freestyle did not work.

The German figure skating champion Nikita Starostin had missed the freestyle finals and thus the quotas for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The 22-year-old from Dortmund was unable to exploit his potential in the US state of Massachusetts and despite the best of the season of 70.72 points in the short program only ran in 28th place. A qualification competition in Beijing in September remains the last chance of the German ice skating union to solve the Olympic ticket among the men.

After the title win of Alyna Liu among women and Madison Chock/Evan Bates in Eisanz, thanks to Malinin’s best performance, the third gold of the title fights in the USA remained. Only in a pair run, Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara from Japan prevailed in front of Minerva-Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin from Berlin.