Ilia Malinin began his four-year road to Olympic redemption with a solid short program at Skate America on Friday night at Angel of the Wings Arena in Everett, Washington.
The three-time world champion, who was heavily favored to win gold at the Milan Games in February only to miss out on an individual medal altogether, scored 96.74 points in his Grand Prix season debut. That was enough for Malinin to easily beat out Sota Yamamoto of Japan, who was second with 91.29, and surprising Donovan Carrillo of Mexico, who was third with 86.49.
In the pairs short program, world champions Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany led with a score of 72.71 points. The American duo of Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were second with 71.85 while the Swiss team of Oxana Vouillamoz and Tom Bouvart were third with 70.63.
Efimova and Mitrofanov, who married two years ago, are the two-time reigning U.S. champions. But they were unable to compete at the Olympics because the Finland-born Efimova was unable to gain her citizenship in time to compete in Milan.
They already are targeting the 2030 Winter Games in France.
“That was last season. We're very happy to start this season,” Mitrofanov said, “and be out there on the ice.”
So is the 21-year-old Malinin, going for his fourth Skate America title, who designed his short program as a tribute to those from the close-knit skating community who were killed in January 2025, when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and fell into the icy Potomac River. Many were young skaters from the same club where Malinin trains in Virginia.
“Honestly I think coming into the first competition, my goal was to just feel out the program, how I felt on the ice,” said Malinin, who was instrumental in the U.S. defending its team gold medal at the Olympics. “I feel as the season goes on, the short program is going to be really easy to skate, because I feel so much energy from the crowd.”
Malinin wasn't perfect in his short program, set to “Cantata Memoria: For the Children” by British composer Sir Karl Jenkins. After his opening quad flip and an effortless triple axel, the self-styled “Quad God” put his hand down on a quad lutz-double toe loop.
But the performance value of the program seemed to make up for the mistake, and the entirety of choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne's work helped to earn Malinin a big ovation from the crowd about 30 minutes north of Seattle.
“The way I see it this year, there's not much on the line. I just wanted to go full-out, try my best, see how much I could push my level of skating,” said Malinin, who has called this year's short program one of the hardest he has ever attempted.
The fourth of six Grand Prix events, Skate America continues Saturday with the women's short program and the rhythm dance in the afternoon, while the men's and pairs free skates in the evening will determine the first medals of the weekend.
Olympic champion Alysa Liu withdrew from Skate America while taking a break from the sport, and U.S. champion Amber Glenn did likewise as she competes on “Dancing with the Stars.” That leaves a young trio of American women — Sophie Joline von Felten, Logan Higase-Chen and Alexa Gasparotto — to carry the hopes of the home nation.
They'll face a field that includes Grand Prix de France winner Ami Nakai of Japan and Russian skaters Alexandra Ignatova and Adeliia Petrosian, who are allowed to compete internationally as neutral athletes for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Jason Brown, the 31-year-old American now a decade removed from his national championship, seemed to make time stand still with his return to Skate America on Friday night. He spun out on his opening triple axel but put together a solid short program, wiping away any lingering memories from a disastrous free skate at the U.S. championships earlier this year.
Brown scored 84.00 points, putting him in sixth place heading into Saturday night's free skate.
“It was such a long time coming and I was just so proud to be out there,” Brown said. “This was a huge step for me.”
See AP’s full sports coverage here
FILE - Ilia Malinin of the United States does a back flip during his performance in the figure skating exhibition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Emmanuel Macron is set to attend a biennial meeting of French-speaking territories beginning Saturday in Cambodia, where the French president contending with public unrest at home will face international political challenges as an African conflict hangs over the proceedings.
The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie is holding the three-day meeting through Monday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Macron is expected to engage in bilateral discussions and join the summit meeting of the loose confederation of 90 member states and governments comprising 53 full members, five associate members and 32 observers where French is spoken.
Cambodia will take over the summit's chairmanship from Macron, who served as chair in 2024 when France was the host nation.
Before departing for Malaysia on Monday, Macron is scheduled to visit the Angkor World Heritage Site near the city of Siem Reap, where he and King Norodom Sihamoni will mark the completion of a French-supported restoration of the West Mebon temple.
The French leader's trip comes at a time of widespread domestic protests. France’s Interior Ministry said more than 600,000 people took to the streets earlier this month in a demonstration to demand higher wages and support the country’s student protest movement, which has resulted in thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and schools set on fire.
The summit's sticky diplomacy for Macron and other leaders will take place when participants decide on Monday who will serve for the next four years as the group’s leader and chief executive in the role of secretary-general.
The choices include candidates from two bitterly feuding African members, Rwanda's Louise Mushikiwabo, who is seeking reelection to a third four-year term, and the Democratic Republic of Congo's Juliana Lumumba, the 71-year-old daughter of the country’s martyred independence hero, Patrice Lumumba.
Congo, the United States and experts from the United Nations accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda. Rwanda’s government consistently denies backing armed groups in Congo.
Congo has threatened to leave the OIF if Mushikiwabo is reelected. With a population exceeding 110 million people, over 40 million more than France, Congo is the most populous nation where French is the official language and its withdrawal would mark a significant blow to the Francophonie organization.
Two other candidates, from Romania and Mauritania, are poised to serve as compromise picks.
France is influential in the decision as the largest contributor to the OIF 2026 budget of €71.7 million ($79 million).
The outcome also could be delicate because the challenge comes on the heels of the withdrawals of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso from the OIF announced in March 2025, following their membership suspensions over military coups.
Mali said the suspensions infringed on sovereignty, but the withdrawals also came in the context of Francophone African countries in recent decades shedding French political, military and cultural influence that they regarded as overbearing.
The summit's slogan, “Reinvest in Peace for Shared Prosperity and Lasting Stability,” is seen as a reflection of Cambodia’s recovery from years of war and unrest in the last quarter of the 20th century.
About 20 government leaders, including Canada’s Mark Carney, Vietnam’s To Lam, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Félix Tshisekedi, are expected to attend the summit and likely will meet with Cambodia's king as well as Prime Minister Hun Manet.
Most of the summit’s agenda is uncontroversial. Documents set to be approved concern political commitment to peaceful coexistence, social, cultural and economic cooperation, resolution of crisis situations and peace-building, and the protection of cultural heritage and the promotion of cultural diversity.
Host Cambodia, which has an opportunity to showcase tourism potential and business opportunities, is holding side events highlighting commercial partnerships, cultural exchanges, science and technology.
Local political activists see the meeting as an occasion to press for more democratic freedoms in a de facto one-party state. U.N. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews issued a statement pleading with summit delegates to uphold OIF values and pressure the Cambodian government for the release of detained rights activists.
“No one should be detained for defending human rights, reporting on matters of public concern, or voicing critical opinions,” he said.
Cambodia can lay claim to helping birth the OIF, as its late king and mercurial independence leader, Norodom Sihanouk, was one of four founders in 1970 of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation. Sihanouk was overthrown and his immediate successors did not join, as Cambodia subsequently endured civil war and the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Cambodia joined the Francophonie as an observer in 1991 and became a full member in 1993.
Peck reported from Bangkok.
Tourists visit Village de la Francophonie, or Francophonie Village, set up to mark the 20th Francophonie Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
People eat at Village de la Francophonie, or Francophonie Village, set up to mark the 20th Francophonie Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Tourists visit Village de la Francophonie, or Francophonie Village, set yp to mark the 20th Francophonie Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Tourists visit Village de la Francophonie, or Francophonie Village, set up to mark the 20th Francophonie Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
