The 2022-2023 figure skating season officially began last weekend with Skate America which took place in Norwood, Massachusetts, as the first station in the Grand Prix of Figure Skating.
As the season right after the Winter Olympics, this season did not seem interesting to figure skating fans: the greatest-of-all-time Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) announced his retirement in the past summer; the Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen (USA) and his teammate Vincent Zhou (USA) both took a season off and returned to college; the Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama (Japan) withdrew from the Grand Prix due to back injury and the Russian skaters were all banned from international competitions due to political reasons.
However, the men’s single event at Skate America last week was eye-opening for all the fans. Seventeen-year-old Illia Malinlin (USA) killed the game with his free skate with a difficulty that nobody has ever attempted. Five quadruple jumps were attempted and all successfully landed, including the quad axel, the hardest jump in figure skating history. The axel is the only jump that takes off facing forward and requires a four-and-a-half rotation of the skater in the air.
This was the second successful quad axel in history. The first one was also landed by Malinlin earlier in September in the U.S. Classics in Lake Placid, New York, a lower-level competition. The quality of the jump was not great, but it earned a positive grade-of-execution, making it the first successful quad axel recognized by International Skating Union (ISU). The quad axel at Skate America was greatly improved in its quality, earning an almost full-scale grade-of-execution for Malinlin. Previously, Hanyu was the first skater ever to attempt the quad axel in competition. He went for the jump in the 2022 Winter Olympics but did not land successfully.
Besides the quad axel, Malinlin also landed two quad lutzes, one quad toe loop and one quad salchow. He fell on a triple salchow but followed that up with an extremely difficult combination jump of triple lutz-triple axel. Although a mistake in the short program only ranked him fourth, the spectacular difficulty of his free skate put him on the top of the podium with a total of 280.37 points. Malinlin was also the youngest male champion in Skate America history.
In an interview with NBC Sports, Malinlin said: “It came over my mind. Everyone’s watching. I have to go for this. I went for it, and I just landed it, and I was in shock. I mean, the whole building was screaming for at least a couple of seconds after that. I didn’t even know the music was still playing.”
Kao Miura (Japan) ranked second right after Malinlin. Competing in his first competition in senior level, 17-year-old Miura had the highest score for the short program, putting him the last to skate in the free. The pressure from Malinlin pushed him to add a quad loop into his program component, one of the difficult quad jumps. He fell on that loop but nailed his other program components, which together put him on the second place of the podium.
Junhwan Cha (South Korea) was the bronze medallist. Cha is one of the more mature skaters in this competition, with well-balanced skating skills. He is known for his artistry. However, he fell on one of his triple axels in the free skate and also experienced the problem of underrotation in his quads, which lowered his tech score.
The next station of the Grand Prix, Skate Canada, will be taking place in Mississauga, Ontario next weekend. We are looking forward to seeing how the skaters will do.
