Ilia Malinin

As the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships approach, reigning world champion Ilia Malinin is preparing for the competition with a blend of confidence and emotional reflection. In a teleconference held today, Malinin shared insights into his training, mindset, and thoughts on the pressures of competing on home soil.

Coming off a successful season, the three-time U.S. champ emphasized how winning the previous world championships has shifted his perspective. While his victory last year has certainly bolstered his confidence, it has also motivated him to elevate both his artistic expression and technical prowess.

“It gave me a different kind of view on how my skating can be seen,” Malinin said. “It also definitely gave me some confidence to really kind of push myself.”

He keeps a poster on his wall from last year’s world championships as a reminder of the effort it took to achieve his goals.

“Every time I come home from practice, I usually get a glimpse of it. It reminds me of how much work and effort I put in,” he reflected. “So, it’s kind of that reminder of, ‘oh, you should really keep going and really try to go for that goal.'”

Coping with tragedy

On March 2, 2025, Ilia Malinin participated in Legacy on Ice, a benefit organized by U.S. Figure Skating to honor the lives lost aboard American Eagle Flight 5342, as well as the family members and first responders.

Malinin spoke about the emotional weight he carries following the tragic mid-air collision on January 30, 2025. He acknowledged that the memory of the young skaters remains with him.

“There are still some days where I have some of those thoughts that I won’t be able to see them on the ice training with me, looking up to me,” he said. “So, it is really upsetting.  But I’m also really glad that I was able to get through this and really just have this mindset of skating for them. Now I’ll always have them in my head and in my heart, just remembering them at these worlds.”

Strategic decisions and risks

Malinin has been training for the past few weeks and says he feels “comfortable” ahead of the World Championships.

“I’m really looking forward to it!” he said. “It’s going to be an amazing time in Boston. I already feel the crowd is going to be wild, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

Known for his bold technical programs, Malinin remains pragmatic about his strategy for Boston. He plans to assess his readiness before deciding whether to attempt his most ambitious program.

“I’ll have to see when I get to Boston and specifically, I think I’ll have to see how the ice condition is,” he said. “When I get to the program, we’ll just have to see how I’ll be feeling in that moment and if it would be worth it to go for that risk or to maybe play it safe.”

The skater has been working on the quad loop, a jump he underrotated at the 2024-25 Grand Prix Final and also fell on at U.S. Nationals.

“Let’s just call it a fun ride,” he laughed, regarding how his training as been going on the jump. “It’s been very, very… I’ve been annoyed with it for a few times, but overall, it’s getting really comfortable, and I really like it a lot.”

Ideally, Malinin would like to keep all seven quads in the free skate. In training he’s been working to perfect the technique for all the jumps.

“I feel pretty confident in how I’ll be able to perform them in competition,” he said. “But I’ll really have to kind of reevaluate and see how I feel during like the practices and potentially, the warmup. If I have to do a few quick changes to the content, then that might be a possibility.”

Training and the Olympic season

Malinin feels the break after U.S. Nationals has helped him to focus where he’s been struggling in his programs this season.

“There are some key places that I can make a lot better, clean up,” he said. “So I took a few lessons on Zoom with Shae-Lynn (Bourne) to really work on those places. To kind of fix them up a little bit to make it more comfortable and to make it easier for me to skate through or add more choreography. So that’s one of the things that was done, but also just cleaning up everything in the program that comes from jumps, spins, choreography, just making sure everything is nice and neat just before Worlds.”

After Worlds, it will be time to start focusing on the 2026 Olympics, which is less than a year away.

“Right now, my main focus is getting through these worlds and kind of getting through that off-season,” said Malinin. “I think mainly my focus on that Olympics will probably start in the beginning of next season when the competitions actually start rolling around. That’s when I’ll kind of have to figure out that strategy and how to best get myself ready for the competition.”

The 20-year-old already has some ideas of what direction he wants to go in terms of music for his new programs. He also shared the possibility of either bringing back a program or keeping one from this season.

“I’ve been liking the short this year, so it might be a bigger possibility that I might keep it for the Olympic year,” he said. “But we will have to see with the long program or,  as more time goes on, if I change my mind or something changes.”

Managing pressure, rivalry

Competing in front of a home crowd brings both excitement and added pressure. Despite the weight of expectations, not to mention a pre-Olympic year, Malinin is eager to embrace the energy of the audience.

“Right now, I’m still kind of in the zone of just being excited to go there and to perform in front of the crowd,” he said. “But I know that in a few days I might start to feel that pressure. Being at home and, you know, a huge crowd behind me and being the reigning world champion…it’s going to be a lot of pressure to handle. But I’m really looking forward to giving it my all and really just trying to handle that pressure.”

When asked about his relationship with Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, Malinin praised his competitor’s artistry and skating skills. Yet, Malinin firmly believes his toughest competition is himself.

“He’s definitely an inspiring skater for me,” said Malinin. “And I always watch him on the ice during the practices. I really just admire his skating and how beautiful it is. His skating skills, his edges and his jumps are really just exquisite.”

“It’s really fun for me to be competing against him,” he added. “We’re always friendly on and off the ice. Our connection is really nice, and I really enjoyed that a lot. Even though there’s that language barrier, we still manage to make it work and to really have a really nice and enjoyable time.”

However, Malinin does not view Kagiyama as a rival, per se.

“I would consider myself to be my biggest rival,” he said. “I mean, for me, that’s my whole motto is I always like to compete against myself and to really just push my own limit. Like, for example, last year I had this limit and this year I want to double or triple that. So, it’s kind of just a competition with myself that I like to set goals and to slowly work my way up to them.”

A nod to Shaidorov

Malinin also gave a nod to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov—the first skater in history to land a triple Axel-quadruple toe jump combination and a triple Axel-Euler-quadruple Salchow jump sequence in an ISU competition.

“I mean, I really want to just throw my hat down for him,” said Malinin. “I’m really impressed and really happy for him that he went for these combinations. It’s something that I really like to see, people pushing their own limit, pushing the sport to its boundaries to really come out as unique or different from all the other skaters. So, I really give him big props and we’re really friendly with each other. We talk about these combos a lot and it’s just really fun to see another person really trying to push their own body and their own physical limit.”

While his main focus remains on the competition next week, Malinin hopes to explore Boston’s culinary scene, particularly the city’s famed pastry shops. He aims to balance relaxation with mental preparation on the day between programs.

“And the reunion with all the other skaters,” he added. “I really enjoy coming to the competition just to see my friends, see the skaters, and really just have wonderful time.”

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