Ilia Malinin | Page 41 | Golden Skate

Ilia Malinin

Anywho, hopefully this year at Nationals, Ilia will skate a clean FP, or cleanish.
Yes I hope he can have a great Nationals free skate to help prepare for worlds. I’m nervous but looking forward to it! Sadly I live too far away to watch in person but I will be watching on peacock!

I wonder which version of his free skate costume he will wear? Personally I prefer the first version - it is perfection!
 
Hi! Just wanted to say that Ilia is a big part of the reason I became a fan of men’s skating. I got here by a slightly random path. First, I watched men’s at the Olympics because I heard that Nathan Chen was a big deal, and it was exciting to watch him win, but I felt sorry for Vincent Zhou when I learned about how he was sadly excluded. So I decided to watch Worlds to see what Vincent could do, and that’s when I hear the commentators talking about Ilia, this 17 year old who might do some jump that nobody had yet accomplished successfully. I thought, “sounds interesting, I’m going to follow this kid”. That (and suddenly realizing that the World Champion’s skating was something I needed more of in my life, not to get too off topic) was why I started watching men’s skating, and I haven’t missed a Grand Prix since Ilia went senior.

So yeah, sometimes jumps and technical achievements do appeal to outsiders. The funny thing is, at that WC I didn’t know anything about jumps and had no clue if skaters were doing quads or triples 😂. But I was intrigued by the quad axel anyway. Now I recognize all the jumps and watch intently to see if Ilia is making changes to his layout 😁. The other thing I love about Ilia’s story are the things that he and Shoma said about each other. And all the other skaters that he has befriended. Skaters respecting and supporting each other is just the best thing, in my opinion 🥰
 
I have been showing my non-skating fan friends Ilia’s videos as part of my unscientific study on what appeals to people who aren’t watching skating regularly. Conclusion: even people who don’t know what a quad is can discern Ilia’s awesomeness.

I showed Ilia’s Lombardia LP to a friend who likes skating but only watches it at Olympics. She liked it a lot and said his moves were crazy cool. I told her that he wants to incorporate moves from gymnastics and martial arts (like the Raspberry Twist) in his skating, and she thought that was super cool. Sent the same video to a friend who doesn’t watch skating (except the videos I’m constantly trying to get her to watch) along with some of my other favorite programs from juniors and seniors in several disciplines, and she replied:
“I liked Ilia a lot! The flips were awesome, and I never expected to hear that song in any sort of artistic performance. You shouldn’t believe him, by the way. I think he’s totally a vampire with the way he moves, costume, etc. I’m not falling for his trickery.” She appreciates creative choreography and costume detail that contributes to the performance.

Personally, I’m so impressed with the increased creativity, maturity, and sophistication of Ilia’s programs this season. And I thought they were good last season . . .
 
Ilia just skated at an ice show in Italy. This video was posted of him being interviewed at the show by an Italian journalist followed by both of the programs he skated there (Running and Future Rain). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAuClsoGm6I

Please note that the music is muted in this video because apparently a new Ilia skating video with music would be too much of a good thing. However! A fan dubbed in the music for both programs, and it is quite good.

Future Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lporwCA1ARE&list=PL4l1HLHB3Myhdasljmp3ThsbQUfFiLJy0&index=26
Running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-1kguhUaGQ&list=PL4l1HLHB3Myhdasljmp3ThsbQUfFiLJy0&index=27

This was my first time seeing Future Rain, and I’m genuinely impressed. I can’t get over how rapidly his artistic expression is growing. I really enjoy the creativity and variety of movement as well as the musical interpretation in this performance - which is sort of his signature at this point.

I was also heartily amused to observe how Ilia’s accent evolved during the interview! I’m not sure if he was unconsciously adjusting to match the interviewer’s Italian accent, or if his parents’ accent started surfacing for some reason. I suspect he is one of those people who naturally adapt to the way of speaking of the people around him (like me). Maybe this linguistic chameleon trait is helpful for learning new languages :) but he is ahead of me there :)
 
Thank you for posting the videos!! Yes, it was my first time too watching Future Rain, I loved it so much!! The feelings he's able to express is something majestic, and his skills are always superb, I completely agree with you! Many are still saying he lacks of artistic interpretation. Well, just take a look at that and then we'll see if you say the same!;) He's far beyond in art expressions!!
 
I hope this is only a minor problem: We need him in top shape for Worlds, especially

FigureSkatersOnline
@fsonline


Pre-#PrevagenUSChamps Call with Ilia Malinin:On Nationals next week: "Just after the Final, I was able to kind of take time and rethink what my strategy is going into these national championships, just to get ready for the World Championships in Boston."

And yet he's doing another Ice show right after Nats???!!!

 
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I hope this is only a minor problem: We need him in top shape for Worlds, especially

FigureSkatersOnline
@fsonline


Pre-#PrevagenUSChamps Call with Ilia Malinin:On Nationals next week: "Just after the Final, I was able to kind of take time and rethink what my strategy is going into these national championships, just to get ready for the World Championships in Boston."

And yet he's doing another Ice show right after Nats???!!!

This is what worrying me. All this unnecessary skating that has nothing to do with him defending his World Championship. Here again Ari his manager has set another one of his pop-up ice shows on very short notice and now not only Ilia has to deal with this nonsense but now the majority of world championship team is going dragged in too. Heck how I figured out that Isabeau was not competing at Nationals was though this. I really think that someone should step in and stop Ari for poor Ilia sake now. This new show was on top of going to Europe and doing roughly a dozen Ice shows before being allowed to come home again if Ari doesn't set up yet more pop-up shows between that and Worlds. I really think that Raf should step in and get Ilia away from Ari and take him back to California and not let him leave until the World Championships. He desperately needs to train and to get some relief from all the constant distractions and get some rest. He can not keep doing this. I saw him at GPF and he looked exhausted and totally wiped out after his free program. I am afraid that he going to get badly hurt because with the extremely hard elements he does he needs to be ready to do them and in control of them. Failing to do this could cost him more than the world title. He could get a career ending injury and with this chaos happening on nearly daily basis it raising the chances of this happening. So please someone step in and stop this
 
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I hope this is only a minor problem: We need him in top shape for Worlds, especially

FigureSkatersOnline
@fsonline


Pre-#PrevagenUSChamps Call with Ilia Malinin:On Nationals next week: "Just after the Final, I was able to kind of take time and rethink what my strategy is going into these national championships, just to get ready for the World Championships in Boston."

And yet he's doing another Ice show right after Nats???!!!

I’m worried about his injury and boot issues too but hopefully it’s really minor. I just want him to have a solid performance at Nationals and to be healthy heading towards Worlds. It sounds like he is taking his health seriously so I will try not to worry and trust that he can overcome these challenges as he has before.

Here again Ari his manager has set another one of his pop-up ice shows on very short notice and now not only Ilia has to deal with this nonsense but now the majority of world championship team is going dragged in too.
I’m not concerned. Gold on Ice is a one day ice show, I doubt that is as strenuous as a normal day of practice for Ilia. Of course I hope he takes time off but at the end of the day I just have to trust that he knows what he is doing and is doing what he can to stay healthy. From what he says in interviews, I believe he does take it very seriously.
 
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