Ilia Malinin seeks his ‘redemption’ at World Figure Skating Championships

Ilia Malinin made clear his post-Olympic focus minutes after leaving the ice at the curtain-closing exhibition gala in Milan.

“My next goal,” he said on Feb. 21, “is to have a redemption skate at the World Championships.”

Malinin, who dropped from first after the singles event short program to place eighth overall after a 15th-place free skate, repeated that word — redemption — in interviews across the Italian city and in a diary-like social media post.

“I had my amazing moments and memories and did not leave empty handed,” the post read, noting the team event gold medal. “Next step, Redemption. See you in Prague.”

Malinin — sporting a haircut — practiced in the Czech capital on Tuesday, preparing for the season-ending World Figure Skating Championships.

He performed his signature back flip appearing to wear the same yellow skate laces given to him by hockey player Alex Ovechkin before the Olympics.

Malinin, who won 14 competitions in a row from December 2023 through the Prevagen U.S. Championships this past January, hopes to start a new win streak by claiming a third consecutive world title.

Worlds, which air live on NBC Sports and Peacock, began Wednesday with the women’s short program followed by the pairs’ short. Malinin competes Thursday in the short and Saturday in the free skate.

Ilia Malinin

2026 World Figure Skating Championships: How to watch, schedule, entry lists

The World Figure Skating Championships air live on NBC Sports and Peacock.

How will Malinin rebound? In Milan, he attributed the 15th-place free skate to the pressure associated with going into the Olympics as a gold-medal favorite — an overwhelming feeling, even for somebody who spent the previous two years as the world’s top skater.

“Now, time to get back up and do it again,” he posted after his first Games. “It’s done, finished, gone. New goals and challenges await.”

Once again, Malinin’s story intersects with that of Nathan Chen, the skater who preceded him as the leading American (and watched Malinin from the press seats in Milan).

“Ilia is absolutely in a position where he’s young, he’s still hungry, he still has so much potential and certainly is someone that we’ll continue talking about for the next many Olympic cycles, but tonight (the free skate) is a night where he’ll have to reflect and reevaluate where he was mentally and physically and try to identify how he can come into the next Olympics and have a different outcome,” Chen said while working for Yahoo Sports in Milan.

In 2018, Chen rebounded from a fifth-place finish in his first Olympics to win the world title (in Milan of all places) by 47.63 points — the largest margin of victory in any event at an Olympics, worlds or Grand Prix Final since the scoring system was overhauled in 2004.

Chen’s total score at worlds — 321.40 — would have won Olympic gold over Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan a month earlier (317.85).

In the month between the Olympics and worlds in 2018, Chen said he learned to stop being “hell-bent” focused on gold. He then said that he wouldn’t trade that world title for the Olympic gold.

After his skates in Milan, Malinin said, “medals don’t define who you are.”

Ilia Malinin delivers powerful skate in Exhibition Gala

Ilia Malinin skated to rendition of ‘Fear’ by NF in a powerful ending to his Olympic Games. The American wore a sweatshirt that had the word “fear” upside on it while skating to his haunting exhibition piece,

Like in 2018 with Hanyu, the Olympic gold medalist is not in this week’s field. Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan did not enter worlds, which is not unusual in an Olympic year for medalists whose normal training time is taken up by off-ice opportunities after the Games.

Malinin’s biggest threat at worlds will be a familiar one — Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, the silver medalist at the last two Olympics who was Malinin’s primary rival throughout this four-year cycle.

During Malinin’s win streak, Kagiyama outscored the American in the free skate at the 2024 Grand Prix Final and in the short program at the 2025 Grand Prix Final.

Lika Malinin, Kagiyama had his lowest-scoring free skate of the season at the Olympics, which cost him a shot at gold.

Redemption opportunities blanket these worlds, from Malinin and Kagiyama to three-time U.S. women’s champion Amber Glenn.

Glenn can win her first world championships medal, one month after doubling a planned triple loop in the Olympic short put her in 13th place. She valiantly climbed to fifth overall with a third-place free skate.

While some Olympic stars are not at these worlds, like Alysa Liu, the U.S. boasts potential first-time medalists.

In pairs, it’s Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who were ineligible for the Olympics as Efimova doesn’t have U.S. citizenship, but can compete at other international competitions like worlds.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, fifth in their Olympic debut, take the U.S. ice dance baton from the absent Madison Chock and Evan Bates (who won the last three world titles, in addition to Olympic ice dance silver).

Malinin, once again the clear American headliner, is practicing what he preached in Milan just by showing up in Prague.

“The biggest lesson I’ll take away from (the Olympics) is just learning to get back up and keep going,” he said.