Quad God Spares Quad Axel, Does Backflip Instead, Shocks Legal Experts
KEY POINTS
- •Ilia Malinin, a 21-year-old American figure skater, competed at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
- •His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, were Olympians for Uzbekistan in 1998 and 2002 and now coach him.
- •Malinin, known for landing a quadruple axel and backflips (recently legalized), won gold in the team event and continues competing individually.
Ilia Malinin, aka the 'Quad God,' has been flipping the figure skating script at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics in Italy. This 21-year-old Fairfax, Virginia native—who started skating at 7 and calls Reston home—owes his athletic prowess to parents Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, ex-Olympic skaters for Uzbekistan in '98 and '02, now coaching him like scene parents desperate for gold. Despite he being the first-ever to land a quadruple axel in competition and planning to do it in Milan, he swapped it out for a triple on Feb 8—because apparently even gods have safe days. Meanwhile, the International Skating Union, after banning backflips since '77, recently legalized them in 2024, just in time for Malinin's one-blade backflip extravaganza that would make Surya Bonaly nod in grudging approval. Forbes reckons he rakes in $700,000 from sponsors like Coca-Cola and Google, funding at least a dozen quad jumps per year. Between a George Mason University major in 'exploratory studies' and dazzling Olympic gold, Malinin’s skating schedule on Feb 10 and 13 may doom others to silvery mediocrity while he profits from Dick’s Sporting Goods and Honda deals. Because if you're landing quadruple jumps and backflips, why not milk Google and Coke for all you can?
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Ilia Malinin calls himself 'Quad God' but can't even commit to the quadruple axel at the Olympics—replaced it with a safer triple like a skater afraid of commitment.
Nothing says Olympic drama like quarantining your signature quad axel but flipping illegal moves into a legal circus act two decades late.
Ilia’s sponsors probably insist he blesses their logos mid-backflip, because why settle for gold when you’ve got Honda horsepower backing your aerial antics?
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 2/10/2026 | Author: Talia Lakritz
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