Ilia Malinin turns Milan upside down
It is Saturday, February 7, 2026, and all eyes in the Milano Ice Skating Arena are focused on one man: Ilia Malinin. The 21-year-old American, whom we all now know in the skating world as the 'Quad God', is making his official debut today on the ice of the Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina. He will be in action during the short program of the team event, where the United States is currently in the lead after a strong first day.
From my 30 years of experience in the dance world, I look at this young man with a specific perspective. What he does is not just sport; it is pure kinetic art. While Team USA already earned points yesterday thanks to Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dancing, today it is up to Malinin to show why he is the absolute top favorite for individual gold later this week.
Marketing Gold: The new 'The Rock' on ice?
He isn't just breaking records on the ice. According to a recent article from Forbes, Malinin is currently 'marketing gold'. In the past twelve months, he raked in an estimated 700,000 dollars in sponsorship deals with names like Coca-Cola and Xfinity. This makes him the highest-paid figure skater of these Games.
What I find interesting about his approach is his ambition outside the rink. Malinin makes no secret of the fact that he wants to become a global celebrity, comparable to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. He wants to pull the sport out of its niche corner and bring it into the mainstream. At Miss Salsa, we often see that dancers who make this 'cross-over' lift the entire discipline to a higher level.
The technique behind the Quad Axel
For those who don't watch figure skating daily: the Quad Axel is the Mount Everest of the sport. It is a jump with four and a half rotations in the air. Malinin was the first to land this, and he does it with a seeming ease that is almost scary. Technically speaking, this is comparable to a dancer performing a perfect five-fold pirouette on a surface that is constantly in motion.
In practice, this means his body must absorb forces that few can handle. He trains in Reston, Virginia, under the guidance of his parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, who were also Olympic skaters themselves. That genetic predisposition combined with an almost obsessive focus on technique makes him unbeatable in the area of jumps.
Artistic growth and choreography
In my years as a dance coach, I have seen many talents come by who were technically perfect but lacked emotion. Malinin also received that criticism at the beginning of his career. People called him a 'jumping machine'. But if you look at his current short program to the music of The Lost Crown, you see that he has made enormous strides.
With choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne, he has worked on his 'lines' and his expression. This is an important lesson for every dancer: technique gives you the basis to fly, but only through artistic interpretation do you touch the audience. Malinin is no longer just that boy of the quads; he is a performer who knows how to fill the entire arena with his presence.
- Name: Ilia Malinin
- Date of Birth: December 2, 2004 (Fairfax, Virginia)
- Nickname: Quad God
- Main achievement: First and only skater to successfully land the Quad Axel in competition.
- Current status: Participant Olympic Winter Games 2026 (Milan).
What can dancers learn from Ilia Malinin?
This is an athlete who dares to take risks at moments when the pressure is highest. Today, on February 7, he is simply there. He uses his background in skateboarding and parkour to improve his spatial awareness on the ice. That is a practical tip I also often give to my own students: look outside your own discipline to become better at what you do.
The focus is now on securing team gold for the US, but the real acid test comes later during the individual competition. If he lands his planned program with seven quads there, we will be making history. We are keeping a close eye on updates from Milan via sources such as USA Today.
It is wonderful to see how a new generation continues to push the boundaries of what is physically possible. Ilia Malinin is the ultimate example of that right now. Whether you are on the dance floor or on the ice, this level of dedication simply commands respect.