Quadg0d Malinin on new jump limits: "Hasn't really affected me."

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Quadg0d Malinin on new jump limits: "Hasn't really affected me."

A rules change that seemed designed in part to give figure skating mortals a better chance against the Quadg0d, Ilia Malinin, has not affected Malinin as much as he expected.

Removing a jumping pass and a jump combination from the free skate, a change approved in 2024 that went into effect this season, could cost Malinin 20 points or more.

It seemed like the Ilia Malinin rule, even if he had not achieved divine stature when it was adopted.

“I thought that the rule change was definitely going to change everything like drastically,” Malinin said during a Zoom press call Thursday, eight days before he is scheduled to make his season debut at the Skate America Grand Prix event in Everett, Wash.

“But honestly, it hasn't really changed so much. I think the programs look the same, if not even better.”

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Figure skating's latest attempt to balance art and sport rewrites history...again

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Figure skating's latest attempt to balance art and sport rewrites history...again

Figure skating’s rules have changed more in the last 22 years than they did in the entire 20th Century.

Since the sport thoroughly revised its scoring and judging systems beginning with the 2004-05 season, its officials have acted in a way that admits their International Judging System remains a work in progress. They have felt compelled to tweak or dramatically alter the way results are decided so frequently it has been hard to keep up.

It is as if the officials take a Zamboni out to clear the record books every season in an effort (Sisyphean?) to balance the sport’s emphasis between athleticism, i.e. jumps, and everything else in a free skate singles program, loosely defined as artistry.

Bring a large bag of asterisks.

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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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Kaori Sakamoto saves best for last in farewell to competitive skating

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Kaori Sakamoto saves best for last in farewell to competitive skating

There is an old adage in show business that advises performers to always leave them wanting more.

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan did that Friday at the World Championships in Prague.

Alas, there will be no more of Sakamoto in competition. At 25, she is leaving that side of figure skating with a fourth world title and an indelible legacy of greatness.

“If you want me to talk about her achievements, you wouldn’t be able to stop me from going on forever,” said her teammate, Mone Chiba, who finished second.

She saved the best — at least by scoring standards — for last, winning with a personal best in the free skate and the highest component scores ever in both the free and short programs.

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