Ilia Malinin’s bounce-back world title marks fresh start for Quadg0d

/
Ilia Malinin’s bounce-back world title marks fresh start for Quadg0d

The figure skating world is back on its axis.

The Quadg0d realigned it, reclaiming his position as the best men’s singles skater in the world with a performance that was merely excellent rather than otherworldly.

Ilia Malinin won his third straight world title Saturday in Prague by attempting just (?!?!) five quadruple jumps, none of them his singular quad Axel. He landed all five, the last with a slight penalty for being short of four rotations.

With a huge lead from the short program, Malinin knew he did not need to use his full array of quads in the long program, as he had at December’s Grand Prix Final, when he became the first person to land seven – and one of each type. After all, none of the other 23 men tried more than three.

Read More

Emilea Zingas, Vadym Kolesnik eager to carry on U.S. ice dance tradition

/
Emilea Zingas, Vadym Kolesnik eager to carry on U.S. ice dance tradition

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik went into the Olympics with no expectations.

Barely a month later, as Zingas and Kolesnik ready to compete in their first World Championships together this week in Prague, they have become the standard bearer for U.S. ice dancing, which over the past 22 seasons has flown its flag in awards ceremonies at six straight Olympics and 19 of the last 21 worlds.

This has happened so fast for Zingas and Kolesnik.

The 2026 Winter Games in Milan were the first global championship appearance for them as a couple (Zingas also finished 36th in singles at 2021 Worlds for Cyprus).

She had taken up ice dance only four years ago after having spent more than a decade in singles. All the Olympic attention and pressure was on their U.S. teammates, three-time reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Read More

Figure skating officials weigh major changes in rules, schedule

/
Figure skating officials weigh major changes in rules, schedule

nternational figure skating federation officials are weighing changes in competition rules that would alter the sport radically, including a potentially dramatic reduction in jumps in singles events.

And the federation’s governing board, the International Skating Union (ISU) council, has already supported significant changes to the figure skating season schedule and Grand Prix format to take effect in the 2027-28 season.

All this is still in discussion stages but moving forward. Under the new ISU Constitution, the 14-member council (rather than the biennial ISU Congress) has the “ultimate authority to adopt, amend or repeal” competition and event regulations and sports rules.

Read More

For Isabeau Levito, once No. 1, the perspective is different

/
For Isabeau Levito, once No. 1, the perspective is different

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — This was going to be Isabeau Levito’s Olympic quadrennium, a four-year span in which she would become the leading lady of U.S. Figure Skating and smoothly glide past markers on the way to the 2026 Winter Games in her mother’s hometown of Milan.

After all, Levito, now age 18, had made the podium in her senior national debut four years ago, winning bronze after taking second in the free skate. At that point, she was below the Olympic age minimum.

By five months after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, all three women on the U.S. team in China had retired from competition.

A year later, Levito won the short program and the free skate at the 2023 U.S. Championships, seemingly establishing her national dominion with her balletic skating.

“She was having her moment, and since then she has been up and down,” said Adam Rippon, 2018 Olympic team event bronze medalist and an NBC contributor.

Read More

Amber Glenn aims to defend Grand Prix Final title, free of fear

/
Amber Glenn aims to defend Grand Prix Final title, free of fear

The old Amber Glenn might have come undone by what happened during the six-minute warmup for the short program at the Finlandia Trophy Grand Prix event.

Glenn competed in Finland just eight days after undergoing a root canal procedure. And she still was getting antibiotics for a sinus infection that had lingered since summer, with the medicine making her feel tired.

And then she popped her two attempts at her most difficult jump, the triple Axel, in the warmup. Popping – doing a single rotation rather than three - can shake any figure skater’s confidence.

About 45 minutes later, Glenn took the ice for her short program, opened by nailing the triple Axel and went on to win that phase of the competition with her season-best score.

“That was 100% the new Amber,” said Damon Allen, her coach, via telephone.

Read More