American figure skater Ilia Malinin won his third consecutive world title this weekend, just weeks after missing the podium at the Winter Olympics.
The self-proclaimed "Quad God" was a heavy medal favorite going into Milan, but finished in eighth place after an uncharacteristic series of stumbles, which he later blamed on the pressure and expectations.
Six weeks after one of the most shocking twists of the Olympics, Malinin rebounded with a literal roar at the World Championships in Prague. He delivered two clean, quad-heavy programs to win gold by over 20 points, capping off the season on a note as high as his infamous jumps.
"I felt relieved that the season's finally done after a long up and down for this whole season," Malinin told U.S. Figure Skating, calling worlds a "change in mindset" from the Olympics. "All I wanted to do was skate for myself, enjoy every moment on the ice and just have fun out there, and that's exactly what I did."
Malinin skated the same routines that he brought to Italian ice — in the individual and the team event, in which he helped Team USA win gold — minus the visible nerves and mistakes. He earned a personal best score in his short program on Thursday to enter the second half of the competition in first place.
And he held onto that lead with a dazzling free skate on Saturday, even as he played it safe by his own standards.
Malinin wowed the crowd with his signature backflip and "raspberry twist" sideways spin, and landed five quadruple jumps. It's an eye-popping number, but not his upper limit: He made history at a competition in December by landing all seven jumps as quads.
He fell short of that all-time high score but still won handily, by 22.73 points, becoming the first U.S. skater to three-peat at worlds since Nathan Chen.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama won silver and Shun Sato won bronze, in a repeat of the Olympic podium. (Mikhail Shaidorov, the panda-cosplaying Kazakh skater who shocked the world and himself with a gold medal in Milan, withdrew from worlds as is common practice for freshly-crowned Olympic champions who tend to prioritize rest, recovery and other obligations.)
"This was a competition where I wanted to just relieve all the pressure from the Olympics, to just come here with a fresh new mindset and just enjoy everything that I love about this sport," Malinin told Olympics.com, adding that it was "probably one of the easier world championships I've been to" for that reason.
Malinin didn't attempt a quadruple axel — the jump that only he can do — in competition in Prague, as was the case in Milan. But he did bust one out at the exhibition gala on Sunday, to onlookers' surprise and delight.
There, Malinin was crowned the International Skating Union's "Trailblazer on Ice" for his record-breaking seven-quad program (he also won "best costume" at its awards show later that day). The 21-year-old from Virginia, who is also the four-time reigning U.S. champion, reflected on the highs and lows of his season in an interview shortly afterward.
"Part of it was just knowing that it's part of the deal," Malinin said. "It's part of what we signed up to do as figure skaters and athletes … There's always going to be disappointing times and things that don't go your way, but we always have to learn to get up and use that as motivation or information to understand what we can do better in the future, and that's exactly what I did."
A mixed bag for other Americans
Malinin wasn't the only American aiming for redemption after Milan.
Amber Glenn, the reigning three-time U.S. champion who is beloved for her outspoken LGTBQ and mental health advocacy, had hoped to recover from her Olympic disappointment.
The medal favorite missed the podium in Milan due to a costly mistake in her short program that put her in 12th place. She followed it up with a sensational free skate that catapulted her into a fifth-place finish.
Unfortunately for Glenn, the reverse happened in Prague.
She nailed her short program — including the jump that gave her trouble at the Olympics — and headed into the free skate in third place. On Friday, she started strong with a triple axel but under-rotated several jumps as a pained crowd cheered her to the end of the song, at which point she knelt down on the ice, covering her face.
Glenn finished in sixth place overall, but quickly took to social media to reassure her fans.
"I'm okay! If anything I'm mentally, emotionally, physically exhausted after a season of extreme highs and lows," wrote the 26-year-old. "I did what I set out to do 6 years ago. Land a Triple axel and go to the Olympics and nothing will take that away from me."
The women's gold medal went to beloved Japanese skater Kaori Sakamoto, who now retires as the four-time reigning world champion. She earned a personal best score in the final skate of her competitive career, to an Édith Piaf medley including "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" — "I regret nothing."
The 25-year-old, who is known for her endearingly emotive reactions to her scores, jumped up and ran around the "kiss and cry" before breaking down in relieved tears as her coach plied her with tissues.
Sakamoto was a favorite for gold, having won three straight world titles, until American Alysa Liu broke her streak last year and then won gold to her silver at the Olympics. Sakamoto has spoken about being disappointed with her results in Milan.
"This season was much harder than I had ever imagined," Sakamoto told Olympics.com after her win in Prague. "There were times when things didn't go the way that I wanted, but at the end, really at the end of this season, everything came together. I'm very happy to be able to put this closure on my career."
Sakamoto's fellow Japanese skater Mone Chiba finished second, and Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium finished third. Just off the podium in fourth place was Isabeau Levito of the U.S. — a marked improvement from her 12th-place spot in Milan.
(Reigning Olympic champion Liu didn't compete; she was busy with post-gold medal opportunities like presenting Taylor Swift with the Artist of the Year Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.)
In ice dance, American duo Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik won bronze in their world championship debut, capping off a breakthrough season that saw them finish fifth at the Olympics.
According to U.S. Figure Skating, this is the 11th straight World Championships where at least one U.S. ice dance duo has won a medal. The most recent three went to Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who withdrew from worlds after taking silver at the Olympics.
What's next for figure skaters (and their fans)
The World Championship marks the end of competition for the 2025-2026 figure skating season and this "quad," as the skating community refers to the four-year cycle culminating in a Winter Olympics.
This is the window, especially in an Olympic year, when skaters traditionally take at least some time off to rest and recover.
Many will return to the rink later this spring for shows and tours. The most prominent one, Stars on Ice, will visit cities throughout the U.S. from mid-April through the end of May. Malinin, Liu, Glenn, Leviteau, Chock and Bates are already on the roster.
"I'm definitely going to celebrate this moment by doing a bunch of shows and starting so many new projects off the ice and on the ice," Malinin said this weekend.
Summertime is when skaters typically develop new skills and routines (and change coaches as needed) for the upcoming season, which officially starts on July 1.
U.S. Figure Skating has announced nearly two dozen qualifying events across the country from July through October, with its finals in November serving as one of the main pipelines to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Those will be held in Salt Lake City in January 2027.
There are also six International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix events every season, each hosted by a different country, including the U.S. This Grand Prix season will kick off with "Skate America" in Everett, Wash., in late October, and culminate in a final that is typically held in December (details for the upcoming season have not yet been announced).
The second half of the season, in early 2027, sees other major ISU events, including European Championships, which are headed to Lausanne, Switzerland, in late January. There's also the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, featuring top skaters from America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. World Championships in Tampere, Finland, will cap it all off in March 2027.
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