EVERETT — The biggest name in international figure skating makes his season debut at Angel of The Winds Arena tomorrow as Ilia Malinin, “The Quad God”, is expected to debut two brand-new programs for the post-Olympic season of the International Skating Union Grand Prix.
Malinin will lead three days of world-class competition involving men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance. The Everett event, Skate America, is the ISU Grand Prix series fourth of six stops this fall leading up to the season final in December. Malinin won the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, in March after an un-expected 8th place finish at the Winter Olympics, where he was favored to win gold, in Milan, Italy in February. The world championship was his third consecutive men’s singles title.
In Everett, Malinin debuts brand-new programs in the short skate and the free skate, dedicated to the victims of the January 2025 American Airlines plane crash in Washington D.C. that collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River killing all 67 people on board both aircraft. Among the 67 victims, 28 members of the international figure skating community–skaters, coaches, parents, and family members–were returning home from the prestigious U.S. Figure Skating National Development Camp held in Wichita, Kansas, following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
To honor those friends and skating colleagues, Malinin will skate to Sir Karl Jenkins’ “Cantata Memoria: For the Children” in his short program Friday night and his free skate on Saturday afternoon is inspired by the animated series Blue Eye Samurai. The new programs are choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne.
Malinin didn’t invent the “quad” but he has revolutionized figure skating with his ability to repeatedly land quadruple jumps throughout the course of a competition. The wavy-haired dervish is the only skater in history to land a quadruple Axel in competition and the first to land all six types of quadruple jumps in a single program. While top rivals typically rely on three or four quads per free skate, Malinin has successfully landed seven quads in one routine, earning the moniker, “Quad God”. Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning became the first person to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition on March 25, 1988, at the World Figure Skating Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Malinin’s technical milestones include the quadruple axel, the only figure skating jump with a forward takeoff, requiring four-and-a-half rotations in the air rather than four. Malinin became the first skater to land it cleanly at the 2022 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, and he remains the only athlete to execute it in competition.
Figure skating features six distinct jump types: Toe Loop, Salchow, Loop, Flip, Lutz, and Axel. Most elite skaters specialize in two to four of these at the quadruple level, but Malinin has mastered all six.
Those monster jumps create the degree of difficulty that catapults Malinin’s scores against the competition. At the 2025 ISU Grand Prix Final, Malinin set the free skate world record, 238.24 points, by landing seven quadruple jumps—including the quad Axel—in a single four-minute program. Even top contenders like Yuma Kagiyama and Adam Siao Him Fa generally cap their layouts at four quads.
Malinin uses precise edge control and patient vertical takeoff timing, as detailed by Scientific American. This allows him to convert forward momentum into clean upward lift rather than traveling too far horizontally. During a quad Axel, Malinin launches off the ice at roughly a 40-degree angle with a force four times his body weight. He reaches a height of about 30 inches and completes four-and-a-half rotations in roughly 0.6 to 0.7 seconds before absorbing a landing force of 6.5 times his body weight.
Figure skating analysts note that the Malinin’s slender build, narrow shoulders, and narrow hips minimize his moment of inertia, allowing him to snap into an ultra-tight air position and spin faster without needing massive vertical height. Coached by his parents, former Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, he pairs technical repetition with high-difficulty transitions and crowd-pleasing elements like legal backflips.
The Quad God has ascended to higher echelons, literally and figuratively, akin to Babe Ruth’s prolific homerun power when few players in his era could match his abilities, Dick Fosbury, the high-jumper who revolutionized the ability to reach greater heights, Simone Biles in gymnastics performing the most complex flips with greater frequency, Usain Bolt’s record shattering sprints or Wayne Gretzky’s rewrite of the NHL record books.
Because quadruple jumps carry significantly higher base points than triple jumps, Malinin’s layouts create a massive mathematical cushion. Even when he reduces his quad count or makes minor errors, his technical base value routinely outpaces the rest of the field by double digits.
As part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, the competition will showcase many of the world’s top athletes as they begin their quest for a spot in the Grand Prix Final. Skate America returns to Everett for the first time since 2018.
Fans will experience three days of world-class competition headlined by Malinin and featuring two-time Olympian Jason Brown, Italy’s Daniel Grassl, and Japan’s Sota Yamamoto. In Women’s Singles, Japan’s Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai, Russia’s Alexandra Ignatova, and U.S. junior champion Sophie Joline von Felten compete.
In Pairs, world champions Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, alongside U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov skate. Ice Dance includes U.S. bronze medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik. You can stream and watch the 2026 Saatva Skate America live on Peacock, with select television broadcasts on NBC Sports and NBC from November 13–15, 2026, at the Angel of the Winds Arena.
2026 Skate America Schedule (Local Time / PT):
• Friday, Nov. 13 (7:00 PM): Men’s & Pairs Short Programs
• Saturday, Nov. 14 (11:15 AM): Women’s Short Program & Men’s Free Skate
• Saturday, Nov. 14 (7:00 PM): Rhythm Dance & Pairs Free Skate
• Sunday, Nov. 15 (11:00 AM): Free Dance & Women’s Free Skate