US Olympic ice skater performs once-illegal move that was banned for nearly 50 years

Team USA's Ilia Malinin has made history on the ice by performing a once-illegal move that's not been done since 1998.

Backflips were banned in 1976 after American skater Terry Kubicka became the first person to do the risky move at the Innsbruck Games.

While still banned, French skater Surya Bonaly performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan and had points deducted from her score for doing so.

Then, after almost 50 years of skaters being prohibited from doing the dangerous, yet impressive, move on the ice, the ban was lifted in 2024.

Now, Ilia Malinin – a double defending world figure skating champion – has become the first person to do the move in the 21st century and effortlessly performed the flip yesterday (February 7).

See the extremely impressive moment here:

Malinin, who is nicknamed the ‘Quad God’, did the flip to make a splash as part of his Olympic debut in Milan, Italy.

Speaking after his performance, the 21-year-old rising sports star said of the backflip, as per New York Post: "It was fun. I mean, come on, the audience just roared and they were just out of control.

"Really that just helped me feel the gratitude of the Olympic stage."

He added: "I try to enjoy every single moment and be grateful for everything, because there are a lot of unexpected things that can happen in life. I'm taking everything to heart."

Malinin went on to score 98.00, placing him second behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who received a score of 108.67.

There has been whispers that he has been working on a ‘quint’, which is a never-seen five-time rotation on a jump. He has already landed a record five quads in the 2025 Grand Prix final, but is yet to publicly debut a quint.

Speaking to The Atlantic, the young skater said he started working on the move two years ago.

Malinin insists that he's already achieved the astonishing feat and that people have seen him do it.

When asked who it was in front of, Malinin replied with 'my parents'.

According to magazine, the Olympic skater spends up to six hours a day on the ice, broken up into a morning and afternoon session, and does as many as 50 jumps a day.

He carries out his training six days a week. Malinin said of his gruelling training regime: "Your whole body dies at the end of the day."