Ilia Malinin | Page 42 | Golden Skate

Ilia Malinin

Wow, wow, wow!! That was absolutely incredible! First, a flawless short program and then a gutsy, phenomenal free skate! I was so hoping Ilia would have the best Nationals performance of his career, and he absolutely did! So impressive!
I can’t believe he went for 7 quads - he does not back down from a challenge! The quad flip and quad axel were so perfect. Overall I thought all his jumps looked great. He should be super proud of himself
 
cheerknithanson said:
The 4Lo needs to go in my opinion. But at least he didn't have a FP meltdown like the past 2 nationals. So that's improvement.
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I would be happy if he removed the quad loop too, but Ilia seems determined to master it. I think he could do his 7 quad free skate a lot easier without the loop. Replace it with a quad sal, or even a quad toe. But I respect that Ilia doesn’t want to give up on the loop.
 
Ilia4A said:
I was so hoping Ilia would have the best Nationals performance of his career, and he absolutely did! So impressive!
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Technically, the best Nationals performance of his career was 2022. That was definitely his Nationals "moment" if you will. But I agree that this year's Nationals was mighty impressive. Sheer spectacle. I think he skates with a different type of confidence now that he didn't have in the last few years.

Ilia4A said:
I think he could do his 7 quad free skate a lot easier without the loop. Replace it with a quad sal, or even a quad toe. But I respect that Ilia doesn’t want to give up on the loop.
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You can only repeat one quad. If he wants to do a 7-quad program, he has to do all of them, and it's more valuable to repeat the 4Lz rather than a 4S or 4T.

I think I took Ilia's 4Lo for granted, because he did it so well at his first attempt at GPF 2023. It was seriously one of the most effortless 4Lo I had ever seen. Obviously, it went well at Worlds last year too, but it's been a struggle since. I think Ilia is determined, but he's also sensible, and now it's 50/50 whether we'll see the 4Lo in Boston or not. If he doesn't feel confident in it during practice leading up to Boston, I could see him replacing it with the 4S and going back to the 3Lz-3A, one of my favorite Ilia combos to be honest. The ending 3Lz-3A feels like a trademark Ilia combination, in the way that the 4A and raspberry twist are some of his other signature "skills." I don't know why, but the 4S-3A just doesn't hit the same way for me.

I don't see him taking out the backflip. It only looked "scary," because he was determined not to put the other foot down, silly boy.
 
cailuj365 said:
You can only repeat one quad. If he wants to do a 7-quad program, he has to do all of them, and it's more valuable to repeat the 4Lz rather than a 4S or 4T.
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I did not know about this silly rule. But that makes more sense now about why he is trying so hard to do the quad loop. I think he can do it, but if he drops it for a different jump in order to skate cleaner at worlds, that would make sense.
cailuj365 said:
Technically, the best Nationals performance of his career was 2022. That was definitely his Nationals "moment" if you will.
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I guess it’s a matter of opinion: this Nationals performance was more technically difficult, and of course the scores were much higher. I also think the historic nature of what he is doing is insanely impressive. But it doesn’t really matter which was better: I’m just thrilled he had such success this Nationals.

Did you all listen to Gracie Gold & Jean Luc Baker’s commentary during the practice sessions? I loved how Gracie defended Ilia! She did not back down, even though Jean was being rather difficult (I like Jean Luc Baker a lot, but I wish he had just listened to and understood what she was saying). Gracie is my hero now 🤩
 
Ilia4A said:
Did you all listen to Gracie Gold & Jean Luc Baker’s commentary during the practice sessions? I loved how Gracie defended Ilia! She did not back down, even though Jean was being rather difficult (I like Jean Luc Baker a lot, but I wish he had just listened to and understood what she was saying). Gracie is my hero now 🤩
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Yes! My jaw was on the floor as I heard Gracie saying all the things I was saying since Ilia’s senior debut - it’s unreasonable to expect a 17 year old to be a perfect all-rounder - people like Ilia should be given time - tearing into someone who was already the best in the world at one aspect of skating as if all they could see were his flaws doesn’t reflect very well on these people, etc. Of course, it has a lot more weight coming from Gracie Gold than from a rando like me! I know many people consider Gracie to be their Queen for many reasons; makes total sense. 🫡
 
Silevril Ilumire said:
Yes! My jaw was on the floor as I heard Gracie saying all the things I was saying since Ilia’s senior debut - it’s unreasonable to expect a 17 year old to be a perfect all-rounder - people like Ilia should be given time - tearing into someone who was already the best in the world at one aspect of skating as if all they could see were his flaws doesn’t reflect very well on these people, etc. Of course, it has a lot more weight coming from Gracie Gold than from a rando like me! I know many people consider Gracie to be their Queen for many reasons; makes total sense. 🫡
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Yes indeed. That’s my Queen❤️
 
Ilia4A said:
I thought the questions they were asking Ilia were awfully - I don’t know - unpleasant, thoughtless? - especially since this just happened and the tragedy is so close to Ilia. But Ilia was very brave and well spoken. It made my heart hurt watching it though💔
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I personally didn’t want to watch the interview once they mispronounced his name. And I don’t know. I don’t want to watch something where he’s clearly in pain from what happened.
 
I'm just not in the right mood to write on GS these days actually, but nevertheless I'm reading news on here. I'm so sorry for Ilia being so in pain.. and for the other skaters as well who knew the kids, coaches and their families. It hurts me so badly everything.
 
Me too, @FaustineF! 😭 🫂 I feel much the same. I cry every time I come to Golden Skate now, but being part of the fandom going through this together is better for me than being alone. I hope all the love from the skating community is something that Ilia and all the other grieving skaters, coaches, and families can feel surrounding them 🕯️ ❤️‍🩹
 
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