When Ilia Malinin will next compete at Winter Olympics as he's set to pull off figure skating's most difficult move
Topics: Sport, Olympics, US News, World News, Japan
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: Joosep Martinson/Getty Images
Topics: Sport, Olympics, US News, World News, Japan
Ilia Malinin is set to take on the most difficult ice skating move in the Winter Olympics on Friday (February 13).
The Team USA star already made history at the Milano Cortina Winter Games by performing the first legal backflip on Olympic ice in 50 years.
Backflips were banned in 1976 after American skater Terry Kubicka landed the risky move at the Innsbruck Winter Games.
The ban remained in place for decades, though French skater Surya Bonaly famously performed an illegal backflip at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, receiving a deduction for it.
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In 2024, the long-standing prohibition was finally lifted.
Now, Ilia has his sights set on another historic goal during the men's free skate on Friday.
The 21-year-old is poised to perform a quad axel - a figure skating jump that requires the skater to complete four and a half rotations in the air before landing.
"I'm hoping that I'll feel good enough to do it [on Friday]," he told reporters, via Fox News, earlier this week.
"But, of course, I always prioritize health and safety, so I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I'll feel really confident to go into it and not have that as something that I'm going to risk."
In Thursday's practice, Ilia landed the move - which you can see for yourself below.
The men's free skate takes place Men's free skate between 1pm and 5.10 pm ET.
The athlete is the first and only to successfully land the quad axel in competition, earning himself the nickname 'Quad God.'
He landed the complex rotation in September 2022 at the CS US International Figure Skating Classic when he was only 18 years old.
Ilia has pulled it off multiple times since, including at the 2025 Grand Prix Final.
The quad axel has been attempted by other athletes, too, including Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu at the 2021 Japanese Championships.
However the double Olympic champion couldn't quite pull it off, under-rotating and landing on two feet, as Forbes reports.
He tried once again during the 2022 Olympic Games, but once again didn't succeed. Hanyu retired later that year, having won two Olympic gold medals and seven world medals - but without being able to pull of the move.
So if Ilia lands it cleanly on Friday, it could cement his status as one of the sport’s most daring and technically gifted skaters ever.
No pressure, then!