Ilia Malinin did what no figure skater had dared attempt in a short programme. On the opening night of the ISU Grand Prix Final in Beijing, he landed a clean quadruple Axel — the sport’s most difficult jump — and rewrote a piece of its history.
A jump the computer did not recognise
Skating to “Malagueña” by Roni Benise, he made the quad Axel his first element. The panel rewarded it with a +3.04 grade of execution. The scoring computer briefly failed to process the element, assigning zero points simply because a quad Axel had never been performed in a short programme before.
Malinin moved straight into a quad Lutz–triple toe loop combination that earned nearly 19 points. A triple Axel followed, completing the most difficult jump layout ever seen in a short programme. Every spin and step sequence received the maximum Level 4.
A one-point edge over the world champion
The performance produced an international personal best of 106.90. It gave him a lead of less than a single point over reigning world champion Shoma Uno. A fall on the quad Axel in the free skate the next day did not stop him; a career-best free-skate score of 207.76 secured the title, 314.66 to Uno’s 297.34.
Malinin had first landed a ratified quad Axel in October 2022 at age 17 in Lake Placid. He withheld the element from his two earlier Grand Prix outings that season, saving it for the moment when the pressure was highest.
“It was an idea of mine for a long time, since the start of the season,” he told reporters afterwards. “I’m glad that I was able to do it under pressure.”
The Beijing short programme laid the first stone of a path that soon included a first world title, a world-record total of 333.81, and Olympic team gold — a career built on jumps a scoreboard once could not read.
