USA’s Ilia Malinin became the first figure skater to land seven quad jumps in a program en route to a world record and third consecutive Grand Prix Final title.
Armed with a quad Axel, which he is the only skater to have ever landed in competition, the two-time world champion improved his own world record by almost 10 points at the 2025 Grand Prix Fina in Nagoya, Japan on Saturday (6 December).
Even Malinin seemed taken aback by the score, screaming and covering his face in the kiss-and-cry next to his father and coach Roman Skorniakov.
“It was one of the best skates that I’ve ever had,” Malinin said. “I really went out on the ice and I had to fight for every single element and I was so glad I was able to do that in front of the Japanese crowd. Without them, I don’t think that would have been possible.”
Malinin had tried doing a seven-quad program before, at the 2024 Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France. On that occasion, he under-rotated the jumps, but was clean in his second attempt in Nagoya.
The history-maker landed a quad flip, quad Axel, quad loop, quad toe loop, quad Salchow and two quad Lutzes, the last three as part of combinations in the second part of the program, to score a whopping 238.24 for his free.
The overall 332.29 – almost 30 points ahead of nearest contender Kagiyama Yuma – was less than a point off a world record too, but Malinin uncharacteristically lower-scoring short kept him back.
Japan’s Sato Shun rounded off the podium with 292.08 points overall and 194.02 for his free – a personal best.
Treating the Grand Prix Final as his testing ground, Malinin said he now feels more confident to replicate that ambitious line-up heading into the second half of the season, which would include his debut Olympic Games at Milano Cortina 2026.
“The Grand Prix Final is the place for me to try new things and new elements, new layouts too, give myself an understanding what is possible, especially this year for the Olympics, so I decided that I wanted to go full out and give myself a foundation of what it would look like,” Malinin said about his program strategy.
“I’m really satisfied with my performance and I know that I’m able to get these jumps under pressure and now that I’m able to figure that out, I can add a lot more to the program to really make it one piece.”
With Malinin’s step sequence and flying entry spin scoring a Level 3, the world-record score could still improve throughout the season as the skater edges closer to his career’s most important competition to date.
Kagiyama Yuma and Sato Shun note improvements in mental toughness
The 2025 Grand Prix Final podium was the exact repeat of the podium last season, but like Malinin, Kagiyama Yuma and Sato Shun have seen vast improvements in their skates since then.
Kagiyama, who scored a personal best in the short, also got a season’s best of 193.64 points in the free to finish second at his home competition with a total of 302.41 points.
He landed a quad Salchow, quad toeloop-double toe loop combo, triple Lutz, triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow and quad toe loop, but got graded down for his triple flip-double loop combo and triple Axel.
The free score was an improvement on last year’s marks, but it was his mental progress that Kagiyama cherished most.
“Last year I had a lot of reluctance and a lack of confidence that showed in my performance,” Kagiyama said. “However, after a year I’ve learned so much. I’m more focused on myself. I’m really basing myself on performing and I’m continuing to have good training sessions. Maybe I lack confidence sometimes, but now I’m more confident.”
Sato showed his newfound mental resilience on the ice in Nagoya. Following Malinin’s ovation-raising program, Sato did not buckle under the pressure but went on to perform a clean program with three quads and top-scoring spins and step sequences.
“Last year in the Final, I was lacking mental toughness which I have gained much more this season,” Sato said. “That has shown up in higher scores, so from here on I need to work on my jumps and other factors, bettering my emotions as well.”
