On Saturday, Team USA’s Ilia Malinin made history at the Winter Olympic Games by becoming the first skater to land a legal backflip in a competition.
On Sunday, the 21-year-old world champion could be attempting something even greater to help his country with the team figure skating event in Milan.
It was a day of mixed emotions for Malinin as he opened his first-ever Olympics. While he wowed the crowd with his backflip and put on a strong showing, he was massively upstaged by Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who performed before him.
Whereas Malinin felt nervous and heavily focused on landing his technical spins, Kagiyama soared on the ice and gracefully put on one of the best routines in recent history.
While Kagiyama will be sitting out the team event free skate in favor of Shun Sato, Malinin will be back on the ice on Sunday.
It’s a somewhat risky decision for the first-time Olympian, as some pundits believed Team USA would rest him so he could be fully prepared for the men’s individual competition next week. Instead, after a shaky short program, Malinin wants to prove himself where he shines the brightest.
And to do that, his current plan for his performance on Sunday includes a never-before-seen landing maneuver in the Olympics.
The quadruple axel jump (four-and-a-half revolutions in the air) is the ace up Malinin’s sleeve, and he is set to attempt it on Sunday in a move to secure USA gold over rival Japan.
While Malinin hit the quad axel in other competitions, no one has ever completed it on the grandest stage, which is the Olympics. Although he could more than likely win the free skate discipline without unleashing it, it appears as if the Virginia native wants to continue pushing the envelope after deploying a backflip yesterday.
If he does land the quad axel, though, not only will it be another page of history for Malinin, but the night should end with him with a gold medal around his neck alongside his Team USA teammates.