Ilia Malinin: The 20-year-old American figure skater redefining the sport

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The best figure skater of his generation may just go down as the best of any generation. He's capable of landing jumps nobody else can, with creativity that is nearly unmatched and plenty of artistry to go with all of his otherworldly execution.

All that Ilia Malinin must do now is deliver on the Olympic stage.

The 20-year-old American phenom has waited four long years for the Milan Cortina Games, after he was controversially left off the U.S. team for the Beijing Olympics. It was primarily due to his age and inexperience — it certainly wasn't due to his ability, which had already put him in rarified air — and it fueled Malinin during the past quadrennial to become the best in the world.

Malinin has won the past two world titles, the latest last year in Boston with relative ease. He hasn't lost a competition in about two years, whether it be lower-level tune-ups, elite-level Grand Prix events or the national championships, where Malinin triumphed for the fourth consecutive time in St. Louis earlier this month.

The scores that he has posted along the way rival the best in history, including the standard set by his countryman, Nathan Chen.

“Ilia is a whole different, like, factor,” says his U.S. teammate, Amber Glenn. “I mean, he's the son of two incredible figure skaters, and he's just built, quite literally, different. And like, it's insane. He's both talented and hard working, and it's amazing what he does.”

Malinin's Russian-born mother, Tatiana Malinina, competed at the 1998 Olympics for Uzbekistan, and won the prestigious Grand Prix Final the next year. His Russian-born father, Roman Skorniakov, competed for Uzbekistan at both the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games.

Malinin's genes go deeper, though. His grandfather, Valery Malinin, competed for the Soviet Union and still coaches in Russia.

So it was never really a question whether he would go into the family business.

Malinin would tag along to the rink with his parents as a kid, though back then he preferred soccer to skating. But once he began to hit those big jumps that have become his hallmark, Malinin was committed. His parents coached him to the junior world title in 2022 after he had missed out on the Winter Games.

With Hall of Fame coach Rafael Arutyunyan soon joining his team, Malinin won his first senior U.S. title, then began winning on the Grand Prix stage. The gold medals soon began to pile up in the most elite competitions in figure skating.

“Ilia challenges himself constantly,” explains Arutyunyan, who coached Chen to gold at the Beijing Games. “Our biggest challenge is keeping the team of people who work with him on the same page. We're all there for him when he needs his team most.”

Malinin has never needed it as much as now.

As the Milan Cortina Games draw nearer, the pressure is mounting, on the ice and off. Malinin has a number of corporate sponsors, and that comes with a certain amount of weight. His face is omnipresent in NBC spots leading up to its broadcast of the Olympics. And he is accosted by fans for photos and autographs just about everywhere he goes.

“With my team, we've been planning a strategic plan to prepare myself mentally and physically, so when I get to the Olympics, that's when I'm at my peak,” Malinin told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview. “We've talked for months, and managing what I train and how I train specifically, and what I'm going to do at all the competitions leading up to the Olympics.”

Malinin began his season by capturing the Lombardia Trophy, then he dominated the Grand Prix de France and Skate Canada, where his score of 333.81 was nearly 80 points better than second-place Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia.

In fact, his personal-best score nearly broke the world record of 335.30 points, set by Chen in 2019 at the Grand Prix Final.

Then, Malinin added another Grand Prix Final title of his own in December, and another national championship in January.

Malinin won that won easily, despite a dialed-back free skate as he sorted out some issues with a new set of skates.

“He has such a passionate fire for skating,” says his choreographer, Shae-Lynn Bourne. “He's one of those that have skates on an hour before we work and an hour after we work. He just puts the time in, and he's constantly — not just loves to skate, but he's not someone who will ever coast, or just go on what he knows he can do. He constantly wants to be challenged.”

That's why Malinin pushed himself to land the quad axel, a 4 1/2-rotation jump nobody else has landed in competition. And it was the impetus behind his signature “raspberry twist,” and a myriad other spins, leaps and moves that seem to defy gravity and logic.

“It's been amazing to see him, not only how he deals with the pressure but how he's really matured as a person,” says Jason Brown, a two-time Olympian. “We're behind him every step of the way. Everyone feels that way.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the medal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin poses with his medal during the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Ilia Malinin skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Ilia Malinin competes during the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Ilia Malinin acknowledges the crowd after finishing first in the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with a new looming deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

The airman’s extraction followed a U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.” Trump said he was injured but in stable condition.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote on social media.

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

The fighter jet was the first American aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war, striking Iran on Feb. 28. The war has since killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

As Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, in a weekend social media post, threatened to unleash “all Hell” if it isn’t opened by Monday. He has issued such threats before and extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war on agreeable terms.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of American aircraft shot down by Iranian forces, along with a photo of thick, black smoke rising into the air. The broadcaster said Iran had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation.

However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.

In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant that they said were caused by intercepted debris. Production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, was halted.

The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

The waterway is a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, especially oil and gas moving from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia. Disruptions there have injected volatility into the market and pushed oil and gas-importing countries to seek alternative sources.

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company and not Australian.

Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Members of Lebanon's General Security stand at the Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa valley, eastern Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man, who fled Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon with his family, sleeps in his car used as shelter, along a seaside promenade in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Followers of Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans as they wave national Iraqi flag during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Pedetrians walk by a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Police officers and their horses take cover in an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A man looks at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)