Ilia Malinin heralds new era at figure skating nationals, but Jason Brown still has a place

A contemplative Jason Brown after brilliant short program at 2023 U.S. Championships (U.S. Figure Skating photo)

SAN JOSE, California — Ilia Malinin figures people thought of him as a just another guy a year ago when he made his senior debut at the U.S. Championships with two dazzling performances to finish second.

“I felt like nobody knew me until after nationals,” Malinin said. “It was almost like this random guy showed up and surprised everyone.”

That anonymity was long gone when Malinin took the ice Friday for his short program at the 2023 Nationals. By then, everyone in the skating world was focused on the 18-year-old who uses “quadg0d” as his social media handle in a disarming way, the young man who had made skating history earlier this season by becoming the first to land a quadruple Axel, a jump he plans to attempt again in Sunday’s free skate,

“It’s a big leap from last year,” Malinin said. “There was a huge spotlight on me. Everyone has expectations of me.”

And he exceeded them, leaving the son of two Uzbek Olympic figure skaters to face the question, “Has the Ilia Malinin era now arrived?”

“I think it is here, and it will be here for a long time,” Malinin said.

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