Ilia Malinin, the 19-year-old from Fairfax, Virginia, put on a dominant display Saturday night in Montreal and took the world figure skating crown in record performance.
His free program included a jaw-dropping six quadruple jumps — including his patented quad axel. Malinin, dubbed the “quad god,” joined WTOP’s Mark Lewis on Monday.
Listen to the interview below or read the transcript.
Mark Lewis: What an exciting time for American figure skater and Fairfax native Ilia Malinin. The 19-year-old who went to Marshall High School is known as the “Quad God.” And that self-branded title came true this past Saturday, as he scored a record in the free skate at the World Figure Skating Championships, winning a gold, landing the best collection of jumps in one program in figure skating history. Here’s a bit of what it sounded like on NBC Sports.
Those screams came as Ilia landed a quad axel right there. But that wasn’t all for his performance, which packed in other major feats. And he’s joining us live now, as we celebrate his victory. Congratulations, everyone is talking about your performance on Saturday. I want to ask how has life changed since that big win over the weekend?
Ilia Malinin: It definitely feels such an honor to work so hard to get to this achievement. After that whole free skate, I just felt so incredibly proud of myself for everything that I’ve accomplished these past few years of me skating … Just putting so much effort into all improving every aspect of it, and I’m just so glad I was able to pull that off.
Mark Lewis: It was flawless. As we watch this play out, we saw you drop to the ice, right after it was over. What was going through your mind at that point?
Ilia Malinin: I was definitely feeling so many different emotions. My head was so clouded with so many emotions, so many thoughts of how I started skating. It was almost like I was getting flashbacks of when I started skating, a lot of big moments of my skating career. And it was just incredible. I couldn’t hold myself up. I was in such excitement. It’s just so many things are happening at once. It’s really hard for me to explain the words, but it just means so much to me that this happened. And I’m glad I was able to put all my effort into this sport, and to really get to the top of the podium here.
Mark Lewis: After this huge win, I almost feel funny asking this but what’s next for you? What do you what do you want to accomplish next?
Ilia Malinin: There’s not always a certain thing that I want to accomplish. I always try to see what I can improve on myself. And in terms of my skating, it’s what I can improve there, make more difficult jumps or make more difficult programs. But overall, I’m just really, try to see how it takes me and just enjoy the whole process.
Mark Lewis: What have you been hearing from local people as they’ve learned about your accomplishment? What have they had to tell you?
Ilia Malinin: They’re really proud of me. And I heard that a lot of them are very supportive. And it just shows that, (if) they’ve never really heard about skating before. But after that performance, a lot of people have said, ‘Wow, I never knew that. This was such an incredible sport and how difficult it was. How cool it is to see people skate and jump and do cool different tricks on the ice.’ They’re all really proud of me; and they’re really glad that part of the D.C. area. It really shows that support to like how diverse D.C. is.
Mark Lewis: Well much continued success. We are very proud of you, as well. It was so exciting to watch this play out. Thanks for coming on and sharing some of your excitement with us. We appreciate it and good luck in the future. That is Fairfax County native Ilia Malinin, joining us live here on WTOP.
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