Parents of Olympic Gold Medalist Ilia Malinin Skated for Uzbekistan
Known as the “Quad God,” American figure skater Ilia Malinin helped the United States win a team gold medal at the Winter Olympics with a performance that included a rare backflip. The young star is building on a family legacy: his Russia-born parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, skated at the elite level for Uzbekistan for many years. “It runs in the family,” the Olympic Games organization said on social media. Malinina, 53, and Skorniakov, 49, decided to compete in figure skating for Uzbekistan after its independence from the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. They represented the country at the Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan in 1998 and Salt Lake City in the United States in 2002. Both were national champions in Uzbekistan and the couple coached each other at one point. They moved to the United States and got jobs as skating coaches in Virginia. Their pupils included son Ilia, who was born in the U.S. in 2004 and took up skating when he was a young boy. Malinin, 21, got the “Quad God” nickname because of his ability to perform the extremely difficult quadruple axel jump. But it was his team event backflip, a move that was once banned partly because it was considered too dangerous, that really fired up the crowd in Milan on Sunday. He stuck the landing on one skate. Tennis champion Novak Djokovic was in the audience and put his hands on his head in awe after Malinin’s daring maneuver on the ice. Malinin’s grandfather on his mother’s side was also a figure skater. His younger sister has also competed in the sport. His mother Tatiana Malinina said that she and her husband initially didn’t want their son to get serious about figure skating. After all, they were well aware of the time, sacrifice and dedication that is required to succeed at the highest level. “When our son was born, we were thinking, ‘Oh no, we’re not going to do this anymore,´” Malinina said in an International Skating Union interview. But young Ilia would show up at the skating rink, making his own programs to music. His parents taught him a few things but didn’t push him. Over time, the young boy’s talent, discipline and focus on excellence became apparent. Now Malinin is the two-time defending world champion. At a news conference last week, ahead of the Winter Olympics, he said he had been learning how to handle expectations and use them to channel his motivation and deliver on the ice. “I’m honestly thankful for all the pressure and the attention,” Malinin said.
