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Ilia Malinin recently won gold medal in the figure-skating team event at the 2026 Cortina Winter Olympics.
Young figure skater Ilia Malinin made the headlines recently when he won the gold medal with the United States of America in the figure-skating team event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The 21-year-old played a major role in helping the USA beat Japan by just one point in the competition. As a result, the USA finished with 69 points in first place, followed by Japan (68 points) in the second spot and Italy (60 points) in third place.
He achieved five quadruple jumps in the free-skate event to score 200.03 and get the better of Shun Sato of Japan. He also became the first skater to land a backflip legally on one skate, in the history of the Winter Olympics.
Ilia Malinin and his family of figure skaters
Interestingly, Malinin's family has a history of figure skating. Both his parents, his father Roman Skorniakov and mother Tatiana Malinina, are former figure skaters. Both his parents were born in Russia, but both of them represented Uzbekistan at the international level, competing in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics as well as the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
In 1999, Malinina became the inaugural champion of Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, and also became the first skater to win medals at the ISU Championships and the ISU Grand Prix. Malinin’s father, on the other hand, had won the National Championships in 1997. Following their retirements from figure skating, both Malinina and Skorniakov became figure-skating coaches.
However, here's the catch. Malinin's parents never wanted him to pursue figure skating despite him starting to skate when he was just six years old. "They wanted me to do something else, 'cause they know," he was quoted as saying by CBS News. "They went through all those years of hard work, dedication, commitment to get to where they were, two-time Olympians. And now they coach skating," he added.
Malinin's parents, in fact, are his coaches now. They coach him along with a prominent coach, Rafael Arutunian. His mother, though, believes that Malinin is more comfortable when his father is around to watch him during competitions. “I think Ilia really likes his dad to be at competitions. He feels more comfortable, like he’s with a buddy," she added.
Malinin will next be in action during the men's short programme (10 February) and the men's free skate (13 February), both at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
English (US) ·