Zheleznyakov – about Malinin: “Extraordinary level, space. Looks like he was born with skates and slept in them.”

Choreographer Alexey Zheleznyakov, in a conversation with , called the level of skating of the American figure skater exorbitant Ilya Malinin.

Malinin won the first world championship title at the singles tournament in Montreal, Canada, by performing six quadruple jumps during his free program, including a 4.5 Axel. The American also set a world record for most points scored on the second day of competition (227.79), beating Nathan Chen’s score (224.92) from 2019. At the same time, Chen continues to hold the world record for the total – 335.3 points. Malinin, 19, scored 333.76 in two rentals.

– Of course, Ilya is smart! Even though he is not a Russian citizen, there is still pride, because our man is of Slavic blood. The Russian character is in the genes and that cannot be taken away.

Humanity is always moving forward and evolving, not just in sports. Therefore, records will always be broken sooner or later. I had no doubt that Chen’s record in the free skate would one day be broken. Of course, this is already an exorbitant level, space, Malinin was born with skates and slept in them. “I can’t even imagine how much data, manpower and health are needed,” Zheleznyakov told .

The silver medal of the men’s tournament at the World Championships was won by the Japanese Yuma Kagiyama (309.65), the bronze medal of the tournament went to the Frenchman Adam Xiao Him Fa (284.39).

Malinin was born in the United States to the family of figure skaters Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skornyakov, who competed internationally for Uzbekistan.