Figure skating-Malinin earns Olympic redemption with third world title
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PRAGUE, March 28 : American Ilia Malinin returned to the pinnacle of his sport as he skated to a third world title on Saturday and shrugged off the shock of his eighth-place finish at last month's Winter Olympics.
The 21-year-old "Quad God", who arrived in Prague carrying the weight of a collapse that cost him Olympic gold and intent on redemption, scored 218.11 points for a free programme that included five quadruple jumps, and 329.40 points overall.
"I definitely felt very pushed and loved from the crowd," Malinin said. "Every single element I did, they were all behind me and I felt that the whole way through my programme.
"My expectation was to leave the long programme in one piece and I definitely think that happened."
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Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan climbed from sixth after the short programme to finish second with 306.67 after his elegant and flawless free skate to Puccini's Turandot.
His compatriot Shun Sato, the bronze medallist last month in Milan, was third with 288.54 after his programme to Stravinsky's Firebird.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, the Olympic champion in Milan, did not compete in Prague.
Malinin carried a commanding lead into the final at Prague's O2 Arena after a personal‑best score of 111.29 in the short programme put him more than nine points clear of the field.
His programme - entitled "The Voice" and featuring his own voiceover - fell short of his massive world-record score of 238.24 set at the Grand Prix Final in December when he performed seven quad jumps, including the quad Axel, a jump only he has landed in competition.
But it was a huge improvement of almost 62 points from Milan.
Malinin tripled the quad Axel, the jump that started the unravelling of his free programme at the Olympics, but his five quads were enough to remind the sport why he remains its most formidable force.
"It was really challenging and really hard," Malinin told the crowd. "But with you guys I was able to make it through."
The final event of the competition, the free dance, is later on Saturday.
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