2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships: Men

Ilia Malinin convincingly seized his third consecutive national title on Sunday afternoon in Wichita, Kansas. Andrew Torgashev placed second after two spectacular performances, while Camden Pulkinen won his second national bronze medal after a rather turbulent Grand Prix season. Maxim Naumov rose from seventh to fourth place overall after an emotional free skate.

Eight-time U.S. national medalist and crowd favorite Jason Brown sat out the event due to “facing a series of challenges adjusting to an equipment change.”

Ilia Malinin

The 2024 World champion transfixed the audience with his short program set to “RUNNING” by NF—a unique and mature concept brought to life by choreographer Shae Lynn Bourne. The 20-year-old skater from Virginia flawlessly executed a quadruple flip, triple Axel and quadruple Lutz–triple toe. He also earned level 4s on his step sequence and all his spins. He scored a tremendous 114.08, thus winning the short program segment by nearly a 20-point margin.

“I felt really good about my skate today,” said Malinin. “I felt like I was able to express myself. I performed to my maximum capability. I think that I still have a little bit of work to do on the overall quality of my skating. Overall, I am really happy with my performance.”

Malinin, who has achieved every type of quadruple jump, continuously strives to challenge himself in his daily training sessions.

“I’m always trying to just find something that works really comfortably for me, especially leading up to next season,” he said. “I think one of the things that I’ll be looking for is to find a layout or a program that feels really comfortable for me, so that when I come to the Olympics, I can have something that I’m very confident will go well.”

In fact, Malinin’s mastery of technical elements is so unprecedented that his fellow competitor, Jimmy Ma, exclaimed that he can no longer consider Malinin “competition” as his caliber of skating is not something that can be “achieved.”

Malinin discussed how he balances the external pressure for him to perform the quadruple Axel while optimizing his health.

“I guess I’m now known as the guy who landed the quad Axel, so I think there is that pressure of trying to do the quad Axel at every competition,” he pointed out. “But I always just trust myself and know what’s best for me and my body. Overall, I always try to train it so that when I get to the competition, I feel really confident to go for that quad Axel, but since the Olympics is around the corner, I really want to just play it safe for myself.”

Malinin’s free skate “I’m Not a Vampire” by Falling in Reverse, was imperfect, but nevertheless extremely impressive. He had aimed to make history by landing seven quadruple jumps in one program but unfortunately took a fall on the quadruple loop. He did, however, execute a brilliant quadruple Axel, as well as a quad flip, Lutz, and toe. He earned 219.23 points in the free skate segment and 333.31 points in total.

“I felt that it was a pretty good performance,” the two-time Grand Prix Final champion reflected. “I have definitely improved a lot since the Grand Prix Final, and I’m very happy with all the progress that I’ve made at this competition. Now I can use the time to take everything that I’ve learned from my performances and develop them to get it as perfect as I can before Worlds.”

However, Malinin expressed his frustrations regarding not landing the loop: “One of my main goals coming here was to finally land that quad loop this season, so I was a bit annoyed at myself for not being able to do it here. I think it’s given me kind of a feedback of what I want to do in terms of leading up to the next competition or future seasons.”

Andrew Torgashev

The 2023 U.S. national bronze medalist performed two excellent and clean skates that granted him the silver medal after placing fifth at last year’s nationals. His short program to “L’enfer” featured a quadruple toe, a triple Axel, and a triple flip along with two level-four spins and footwork. He scored 94.94 points for second place in this segment.

“I felt good about my skate today,” he said. “I would like to continue training, skating, and improving.”

Looking forward to the free skate, Torgashev hopes to continue performing at the level he trains at and allow his work to show for itself. He reflected on last season where he dealt with an injury and needed time to work with his trainer and coaching team to prepare for this season.

“So, I’ve just been chipping away at it little by little,” said the 23-year-old. “Training part through the summer. Just one run through at a time, being smart about training, being good on the recovery, and just being a very mature athlete. Taking care of the body, not getting ahead of myself, and, most importantly, staying smart when it comes to competitions.”

The 2024 Grand Prix de France bronze medalist appeared focused and confident in his powerful free skate to Scheherazade, ticking off one element at a time. His flawless performance featured two clean quads and six triple jumps in all. Two spins and the footwork were graded a level four, and he finished second in this segment and overall (191.55/286.49).

“It is for sure validating whenever you’re on the podium,” said Torgashev. “It makes it seem like your hard work is worth it. It definitely gives motivation to keep training and keep pushing on.”

Camden Pulkinen

Last year’s bronze medalist returned to his 2021-2022 season short program, set to “Come What May” from Moulin Rouge. With an underrotated quadruple toe and clean triple Axel, Pulkinen earned 88.76 points. He sat in fourth place heading into the free skate.

“Overall, I’m just really happy I was able to deliver here,” he said. “I had a pretty rough fall this season results wise, so I’m happy that I was able to really give my best here and produce some pretty good results. Also, everyone else has been skating really well, so that’s been kind of fueling me.”

Reflecting on his decision of switching his short program, Pulkinen stated that while he liked it, it just wasn’t connecting as well as he wanted it to.

“Every time I would skate it, I would get a little bit nervous, and I didn’t really feel comfortable,” he explained. “Whereas, when this one starts, I know that it’s something I’ve done before and it’s something that I’m really comfortable with. So that was the rationale behind it. And I love Moulin Rouge!”

The 24-year-old skater recently graduated from Columbia University and began working full-time while skating. Pulkinen discussed the various challenges that came with the transition.

“It was really hard,” he admitted. “I think the fall represented the tough transition, but I think now I’ve found a balance, and finally, over the last month, I’ve strengthened that balance. It’s allowed me to really push myself and be really appreciative that I still get to be at nationals and compete. That’s not something that many people get to do while working. I’m just really grateful to be here.”

Pulkinen’s spectacular performance to “Outro” and “Solitude” earned a score of 164.16 and a total score of 252.92. After popping the first quadruple toe into a triple, the skater executed seven clean triple jumps, including two triple Axels. The footwork and two spins were also graded a level four.

“I think standing on the podium for the second time is super validating,’ he said, echoing Torgashev’s sentiments.

Last year, he was similarly just points away from the podium after the short program, climbing into the top three after the free skate. Pulkinen’s approach is to not dwell on past results, but to focus on the present instead.

“I think like the short was great yesterday,” he said. “I was happy about it, but today is a new day, and I still had a job to do whether I was in first, second, fifth, fourth, or tenth. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a new day, so I’m happy I was able to reset today from yesterday and deliver like I did. I admittedly would have liked to have been a little more focused for the first jump, but everything else went according to plan.”

Maxim Naumov

Naumov was seventh going into the free skate after a fall on a quad Salchow. However, he put out a spectacular free skate to Tosca which featured eight triple jumps. The only glitch came when he popped his opening quad Salchow to a double. The 23-year-old placed third in the free skate (165.75) and rose to fourth overall (248.16).

“I’m definitely bummed about the Sal, especially because I did a good one in the six-minute (warmup),” said the 2020 U.S. junior national champion. “I felt really confident about it. I’m overall happy with how I did everything. I think just being able to push through everything and not pay any mind to the early mistake. I just try to hold my spins, hold everything that I can, just squeeze all the points that I could possibly get. I mean, it’s the most important competition of the season, so I had to get it done.”

Jimmy Ma placed fifth overall (236.78), followed by Tomoki Hiwatashi (233.65) and Jacob Sanchez (229.53).

Naumov, Pulkinen and Torgashev were named to the 2025 Four Continents team.

Brown was name to the 2025 World team (pending a return to play protocol) and will be joined by Malinin and Torgashev.

Related Info:

• Official Results
• Competition Threads

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