Daily Times

American figure skating star Ilia Malinin is a world champion – and a world-record holder.

Malinin put on a dominant display that included a jaw-dropping six quad jumps – including his patented quad axel – to snag the men´s singles crown Saturday night at the world championships.

“I knew that this could be the best skate of my life,” Malinin said. “Or it could go terribly wrong.” After placing third in Thursday´s short program, the 19-year-old scored a world-record 227.79 in the free program while skating to the “Succession” soundtrack to bring his total to 333.76 – more than 20 points than the rest of the field.

Olympic champion Nathan Chen, also of the United States, set the previous free program record of 224.92 in 2019.

Malinin dropped to the ice in disbelief after presenting his sheer athletics to a rowdy Bell Centre crowd that cheered and clapped the whole way. “To hear the crowd go wild when I didn´t even finish my program yet is just an incredible experience,” Malinin said. “It was so amazing to me. I couldn´t even hold myself up, it was just that emotional to me.”

He dethroned two-time defending world champion Shoma Uno of Japan, who fell to fourth at 280.85 after missing two quad jumps to start his program.