Ilia Malinin reveals gala performance in the works for 'a few months'

Ilia Malinin working on his Olympics figure skating exhibition number for a “few months” means it wasn't designed as response to his Olympic struggles

MILAN — Even before Ilia Malinin took the ice Saturday night for his confrontational individual gala performance portraying the questions and doubts he harbored during the run-up to the Winter Olympics, he got one big hurdle out of the way.

He landed a quadruple jump — a relatively simple quad toe — as part of the U.S. gold-medal-winning team’s up-beat group exhibition number, then happily punched the air with his right fist.

Normally the act of landing a quad is so routine for the “Quad God” Malinin that it goes without a punctuation mark. But at these Olympic Games, eight days after he fell twice and stumbled across the ice in the men’s long program, dropping to eighth place, Malinin wasn’t taking anything for granted.

He landed another quad toe in his individual performance, and four backflips overall, and was warmly welcomed by the audience at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, which sent him off the ice with a sustained standing ovation when his gala number was over.

Malinin, 21, skated that performance to the music of his favorite artist, the rapper/singer NF, which features a question — ”Is this what you wanted?” — repeated multiple times. Malinin said he has been working on the exhibition number for a “few months,” meaning it was not designed as a specific response to his Olympic struggles.