Ilia Malinin's third world championship a relief. Redemption? Think 2030 | Opinion
Ilia Malinin 'felt really relieved' by his world championship performance on March 23. But he said 'real redemption' will come in 2030.
PRAGUE — Six weeks and one day after his awful meltdown at the Milan Olympics, Ilia Malinin threw his head back and roared in delight. The judges’ scores would come in a few minutes, but he already knew. He knew he had done it.
Five quadruple jumps, no falls, no stumbles, combined with the big lead he already had coming into the long program? There could be no doubt. He would be world champion for the third consecutive time.
The same long program that had become such a devastating disappointment in February for the 21-year-old “Quad God” was bringing him nothing but joy in March. He won the world championship in a skating landslide: his total of 329. 40 points was nearly 23 points ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (306.
67), with Shun Sato of Japan a distant third (288. 54). Malinin's first thought?