Photo credit Danielle Earl/U.S. Figure Skating
By Troy Schwindt
A perfect quadruple Axel, plus five other quadruple jumps. An aerial twist (“raspberry”). A backflip, landed on one foot.
Ilia Malinin gave all this, and more, to an appreciative Wichita crowd that gasped, oohed and aahed for four minutes at his feats. At the end of his free skate, set to the hard rock “I Am Not a Vampire,” they leapt to their feet as one with a raucous standing ovation.
His performance earned the reigning World champion his third consecutive U.S. title with a whopping free skate score of 219.23 and an overall total of 331.31, both personal U.S.-best marks. Both scores rank second in U.S. Championships history.
“I felt that it was a pretty good performance, and I have improved a lot since the Grand Prix Final,” Malinin said. “I’m happy with all the progress I’ve made at this competition, but now I can take everything I’ve learned from my performances and really try and develop them and get it as perfect as I can before Worlds.”
Malinin just turned 20 years old in December, but he has already solidified his place in figure skating lore.
“I usually never give up and I try to find ways to achieve things no matter what happens,” he said about the difficulty of this performance.
He opened with a quad flip, followed by his trademark quad Axel and a quad Lutz — three jumps that received grades of execution of 4.27or higher to total 32.37 points. The spell was momentarily broken by a fall on a quad loop, but Malinin quickly recovered with three more quads and a triple Axel, all done in combination.
Malinin became the first skater to attempt seven quadruple jumps in a single program at a U.S. Championships. The six landed quads tie the record for most quadruple jumps landed in one program.
While quads are Malinin’s calling card, he also showed off more mature skating skills, wrapping his technical feats with a layer of theatrical polish.
Malinin is undefeated since the 2023 Grand Prix Final.
Andrew Torgashev had quite possibly his best free skate ever, a clean, stylish skate to Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazad” that showed off his deep edges and superior skating skills, as well as two quad toe loops and two triple Axels.
The 2023 U.S. bronze medalist posted personal best scores of 191.55 for his free skate and 286.49 overall to earn the silver medal.
“This was for sure validating,” Torgashev said. “Whenever you are on the podium, it makes it seem like your hard work has been worth it. It can inspire confidence and definitely gives me motivation to keep training and keep pushing on.”
After reducing an opening planned quad toe loop to a triple, Camden Pulkinen did not put a foot wrong in his free skate to the electronic music group M83’s “Outro” and “Solitude.” The New York City-based skater hit seven triples, including two solid triple Axels, and showed the best spins in the event.
“Standing on the podium for the second time is super validating,” Pulkinen said. “I had a pretty rough fall so I was happy to be here. Wichita was a great city to host us, so it was a great time being here and it was nice being on the podium.”
The defending U.S. bronze medalist chalked up 164.16 points for his free skate and 252.92 points overall to secure his second straight bronze at the U.S. Championships.
Maxim Naumov won his third consecutive pewter medal with a strong performance to selections from “Tron: Legacy” by Daft Punk that, while lacking a quadruple jump, included two solid triple Axels and two triple-triple combinations.
He tallied 165.75 points for the segment and 248.16 points overall.
“I’m definitely bummed about the [Salchow] since I did a good one in the six-minute, so I felt confident on it,” Naumov said. “I’m overall happy with how I did everything. Just being able to push through everything and not paying no mind to the early mistake. I just tried to hold my spins, hold everything that I can to just squeeze out all the points that I could possibly get. It’s the most important competition of the season so I have to get it done.”
