Ilia Malinin bounces back from Olympic nightmare with 3rd straight world figure skating title

Ilia Malinin is back on the top step of the podium.

PRAGUE — Ilia Malinin is back on the top step of the podium.

Six weeks after a disastrous skate knocked the Olympic gold-medal favorite off the podium, the “quad god” reeled off one huge jump after another, and a backflip for good measure, to retain his world championship title for the third year running.

Malinin shouted and punched the air with relief after finishing a skate that showed he had achieved his desire to “move on” from the Olympics after days tormented by his mistakes.

He praised the crowd’s support, saying: “It was really challenging, really hard but with you guys I was able to make it through.” His aim, he added, had simply been to get through the free skate “in one piece.”

Ilia Malinin on the podium during the medal ceremony after the men free skating at the ISU Figure Skating World Championships 2026 in Prague on Saturday.Lukas Kabon / Anadolu via Getty ImagesSkating last after leading the short program, just as he did in Milan, Malinin landed five high-scoring quadruple jumps but not his pioneering quad axel, a jump he didn’t attempt at the Olympics.