The figure skating world is back on its axis.
The Quadg0d realigned it, reclaiming his position as the best men’s singles skater in the world with a performance that was merely excellent rather than otherworldly.
Ilia Malinin won his third straight world title Saturday in Prague by attempting just (?!?!) five quadruple jumps, none of them his singular quad Axel. He landed all five, the last with a slight penalty for being short of four rotations.
With a huge lead from the short program, Malinin knew he did not need to use his full array of quads in the long program, as he had at December’s Grand Prix Final, when he became the first person to land seven – and one of each type. After all, none of the other 23 men tried more than three.
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“My expectations were to leave the long program in one piece,” he deadpanned to the rink announcer. “I think that happened.”
You can forgive Malinin such relatively lowered ambitions, given his free skate debacle at the Olympics six weeks ago, when five botched quads in seven attempts (with two falls) knocked him from first to eighth.
It was an utterly unexpected meltdown from the 21-year-old Virginian, who has lorded over men’s skating the past three seasons and changed the sport with his unprecedented jump mastery.
If there ever was a time for Malinin to exercise some restraint, this was it. Going into the offseason on a double downer would have left him with potentially troubling doubts as he begins another four-year quest for Olympic gold.
So his second jump of the four-minute program was a triple Axel rather than a quad, and he later eschewed a quad loop, the quad he has attempted by far the least in his career. Asked about those choices, he said, “This is the time for me to enjoy the last competition of the season.”
Malinin’s final score, 329.40, still gave him a more-than-comfortable winning margin over Yuma Kagiyama of Japan (306.67), who added a fourth world meet silver to a medal collection that also includes two Olympic silvers. Shun Sato of Japan was third (288.54).
The most impressive part of Malinin’s scores was those for program component scores — presentation, skating skills and composition. With no mark lower than 9.0 and five maximum marks of 10.0 for presentation, Malinin totaled 95.04, nearly three points better than his previous personal best in a long program.
Meanwhile, a solid performance by Andrew Torgashev helped the U.S. keep its three men’s spots at worlds for next season, for which it was necessary that the placements of the top two U.S. mean add up to 13 or fewer.
Torgashev finished 10th, a huge improvement over the finishes of 22nd and 21st in his two previous world appearances. Higher, too, than his 12th-place Olympic finish.
“(It’s good) knowing I don’t have to be spectacular, just good, in order to achieve something for the team,” Torgashev said.
As it turned out, Jacob Sanchez’s 12th place in his world debut also would have been good enough to ensure the three places. That’s the advantage of having Malinin on the team.
“This was a competition where I wanted to relieve all the pressure and come here with a fresh, new mindset,” Malinin said.
Like every Olympian who is a dominant winner in a sport mostly ignored by the general public for all but 16 days every four years, Malinin suddenly faced a spotlight that burned far hotter than he could have ever imagined.
That he had been a transformative athlete in his sport meant little to those watching him for the first time. They wanted to find out what all the buzz around this skating deity was about.
What they got as he staggered to 15th in that Olympic free skate was just another guy on skates, which many were quick to note on social media.
This world meet, he said, was a chance to give himself a fresh start. When he finished skating, Malinin let out a yell of relief. The audience yelled right along with him. They had seen the guy they hoped for. The Quadg0d guy.
(Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at the last 13 Winter Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCSports.com)
