Ilia Malinin won Skate America for the fourth time Saturday night, kicking off a four-year odyssey toward the 2030 Olympics in France with a quad-filled free skate that left the 21-year-old American wunderkind once again ahead of the competition.
Malinin finished with 284.31 points inside Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington. That was enough to outdistance Daniel Grassl of Italy, who actually edged Malinin in the free skate but finished with 274.73
points overall, and Israel's Tamir Kuperman, who finished on a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his career.
The German team of Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin captured the pairs title with 200.79 points. Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were second with 191.79, and U.S. teammates Katie McBeath and Balazs Nagy third with 187.13.
In the women's short program earlier in the night, Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai scored 82.20 points, which not only set the 18-year-old's personal best but also was the highest-scoring short program this Grand Prix season.
Alexandra Ignatova, whose last name was Trusova when she won silver at the 2022 Olympics, was second at 74.24 points. Yujae Kim of Korea was third while Adeliia Petrosian — like Ignatova a Russian competing as a neutral athlete — was in fourth.
In the rhythm dance, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik showed why they’re considered the top American dance team following the retirement of longtime standard-bearers Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Zingas and Kolesnik scored 82.52 points for their dance, set to selections from “Carmen” by Georges Bizet, just a fraction off the best score of the Grand Prix season.
France's Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud were second and the Czech duo Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek were third.
Malinin had a comfortable lead after his short program Friday night, only for Grassl to wipe much of it out with a superb free skate.
Undaunted as ever, though, Malinin proceeded to lay down another high-flying program set to music from the animated television action show “Blue Eye Samurai.” He landed four quads among his six jumping passes, including a quad lutz in sequence with a triple axel and double axel, and his signature backflip brought down the house on the penultimate night of Skate America.
“It definitely does feel different. I feel a lot more powerful skating this program,” said Malinin, who was the heavy favorite to win gold at the Milan Olympics in February, only for a disastrous free skate to leave him tumbling out of the individual medals.
“Before,” added Malinin, who will compete at the NHK Trophy in Japan in a couple of weeks, “I always felt I was in this weird, awkward zone of trying to be perfect. Now, I was really able to skate out there for myself, and enjoy everything.”
Nakai, fresh off a gold medal at the Grand Prix de France, opened her short program with a big triple axel, one of the few women to attempt the 3 1/2-revolution jump. She also landed a flawless triple lutz-triple toe and finishing triple loop in a program set to “Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel, leaving her with a nearly eight-point lead going into Sunday's free skate.
“I was able to trust myself, and then all the jumps, I was able to land them,” Nakai said. “I feel really great about this performance.”
Ignatova, who married skater Makar Ignatov since the 2022 Olympics, and is making a comeback after welcoming their first child in August 2025. She opted for the safer double axel to open her first Skate America appearance since winning the event in 2021.
Petrosian, the three-time reigning Russian champion, is making her senior Grand Prix debut after the International Skating Union said Russian athletes could compete as neutrals — similar to the Olympics — for the first time since their nation's invasion of Ukraine.
Petrosian, who was sixth at the Milan Games, was added to the Skate America field just over a week ago, after the withdrawal of Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone. Petrosian was able to scramble to get her paperwork in order to enter the U.S., but her new coach, Inna Goncharenko, was unable to do so. That left Petrosian sitting alone in the kiss-and-cry as her score was read.
“At first I thought I’d be OK without my coach, but today I really felt her absence and wanted someone by my side. But it went well,” Petrosian said. “I’m thankful to everyone, and of course the audience, the volunteers.”
Zingas and Kolesnik, who were fifth at the Milan Olympics, have enjoyed a fast rise in ice dance after she left singles skating. They followed their strong Winter Games by finishing third at the world championships, and despite getting a late start to this season due to Kolesnik's injury, they are expected to be podium contenders at next month's Grand Prix Final.
“We definitely have room to improve," Kolesnik said, “considering this was our first competition of the season.”
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