Only four days into the Winter Olympic Games, and American ace figure skater Ilia Malinin has already seen his popularity explode worldwide after busting out a pair of backflips in official competition.
After leading Team USA to gold in the team event this past weekend, Malinin has seen his Instagram follower count double in the past few days.
The two-time world champion, who has been undefeated in competition for over two years, entered Tuesday’s opening round of the individual men’s event as the heavy favorite to win gold.
“Knowing that [my USA team was] gonna support me throughout this program, no matter what, really gave me the confidence to really just calm down and really just get into that flow state,” he said in an interview following his first-ever Olympic gold medal. “Without them, I don’t think I would be able to accomplish this.”
In the short program to begin the men’s solo race for the podium, Malinin wanted to continue his pursuit of greatness.
He was not bashful, landing in Milan, Italy, for the Olympic Games, stating that he wasn’t necessarily at the event for hardware or to break records.
Malinin wants more: He wants to become not only the new face of figure skating (if he isn’t already) but also to show the world how much the sport has evolved in terms of physicality and skill.
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To prove that, he came out on Tuesday wanting to improve on his shaky short program from the team event and that he wasn’t at his full power during the weekend competition.
Malinin did just that, scoring 108.16, 10 more points than he did performing the same routine to make his Olympics debut. He defeated his rival Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who had beaten him in the short program during that team event. Kagiyama slipped and fell during his routine, giving the win to the American ace.
His next step will be on Friday, when he goes into his more comfortable round of the free skate as the leader, with a chance to cement himself in legend at his first Olympic Games.