Top skaters, dismayed by proposed rules changes, ask international federation to hear their voices

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Top skaters, dismayed by proposed rules changes, ask international federation to hear their voices

 Four months after circulating a set of rules modification proposals that would have radically transformed the sport of figure skating as early as the 2027-28 season, the International Skating Union has apparently decided to hold off on trying to implement any such cataclysmic changes until at least after the next Winter Olympics in 2030.

The ISU will go ahead next season with previously approved changes that could be seen as laying some ground work for the proposals that would essentially reinvent the sport.

In the interim, the ISU pooh-bahs would do well by listening on repeat to a recording of answers given by the three men’s medalists at the recent World Championships to a questioner who asked for their thoughts about the changes.

Or maybe the ISU should already have sought their opinions - and those of all other singles skaters at the world meet level – before imposing new rules on the athletes - especially the changes under discussion that would have as much (or more?) impact on the sport as the end of compulsory figures in 1990 and the introduction of the International Judging System in 2004.

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

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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.

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Ilia Malinin puts Olympics behind him with historic World Championships short program

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Ilia Malinin puts Olympics behind him with historic World Championships short program

This was the Ilia Malinin everyone had expected to see on that fateful night at last month’s Winter Olympics in Milan.

The one who Thursday did a program with easily the hardest jumps of anyone in the field at the World Championships in Prague.

The one who nailed them all — quadruple flip, then triple Axel, then quadruple Lutz-triple toe loop combination — to command the short program and build a lead of nearly 10 points in his bid for a third straight world title in men’s singles.

Or maybe not quite that Ilia.

“This is another version of me, another part of me that just appeared out of nowhere, the person not trying to put so much expectations on me,” Malinin said Thursday. “This is me just wanting to enjoy doing what I love.”

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"She doesn't want to be famous. She wants to be Alysa."

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"She doesn't want to be famous. She wants to be Alysa."

Alysa Liu won two Olympic gold medals by doing things her way.

And, her coach says, Liu hopes to keep doing that once she leaves Italy on Sunday.

That’s why it’s probably a good thing that she has skating commitments to keep her busy for the next two months, including a trip to Prague to defend her world title in late March.

“No press tour right away, no nothing,” coach Phillip DiGuglielmo said Saturday via telephone from Milan, not long before Liu closed down the exhibition gala’s solo performances.

“We have to figure out how we are going to train (for worlds). We may have to ask the rink management (in Oakland, Calif.) to close the rink when she trains because of the attention she has gotten. “Dealing with that kind of attention is not what she wants now. She doesn’t want to be famous. She wants to be Alysa.”

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Many questions, few answers for Malinin in Milan

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Many questions, few answers for Malinin in Milan

Ilia Malinin smiled broadly as he slapped hands with his father/coach, Roman Skorniakov, on the boards at the Milano Olympic Ice Center.

That was just before he skated to the center of the ice to begin his free skate Friday in the men’s singles event at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

No wonder he smiled. Malinin had a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama after the short program. And his path toward an Olympic gold medal was seemingly clear of any obstacles after Kagiyama, skating before Malinin, made mistakes big and small on three of his first five jumping passes.

Malinin figured to be smiling even more broadly soon.

But when Malinin finished his four-minute free, he first masked his reaction by covering his face with his gloved hands.

He shook his head, lowered his eyes, shook his head again as he skated off the ice toward his father. Still out of breath, his mouth was open in a narrow rectangle. He shook his head one last time, each shake signaling that Malinin’s incomprehension was complete, just as it was for everybody who had watched him come undone.

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