MILAN (AP) — Ilia Malinin keeps teasing fans at the Milan Cortina Olympics by submitting program plans that have the American figure skating star attempting the quad axel, a 4 1/2-revolution jump so difficult nobody but him has ever landed it in competition.

Yet through two programs in the gold medal-winning team event and his individual short program Tuesday night, the “Quad God” has yet to attempt the hardest quadruple jump of all, opting instead for the safer triple axel everyone else is doing.

“My lazy part of me," Malinin said with a smirk, “just forgetting to change the planned elements.”

Or maybe Malinin is saving it for his grand finale.

He has a five-point lead over Japan's Yuma Kagiyama and France's Adam Siao Him Fa going into the free skate, a margin so big that it seems almost insurmountable, and one that gives him some wiggle room should he attempt the quad axel and fail.

The plan Malinin has submitted for Friday night includes it — naturally — part of what would be a record-tying seven quads in all.

“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it,” Malinin said, more seriously. “But of course I always prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it”

The best laid plans

Planned program content is just that: a plan. Skaters often deviate from it depending upon how they feel.

It may be they had a hard time with an element in practice and change it. Or, they might make a mistake in the midst of their routine — say, messing up the first jump on a combination pass — and they are forced to change their program on the fly.

What makes the quad axel so difficult is that the axel is the only one of figure skating's six primary jumps that starts facing forward, giving it an extra half revolution. In fact, the jump is so difficult even elite skaters struggle with the triple version of it.

“I never thought I’d see anybody do a quadruple axel,” admitted 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton. “Not in my lifetime.”

Indeed, most people thought it was impossible.

Then Malinin proved it was.

In September 2022, during the off-the-radar U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, he stunned the sport by setting down a near-perfect version of the quad axel as part of his winning free skate. Malinin was just 17 at the time.

How does he do it? By spinning at about 340 revolutions per minute, or about as fast as a ceiling fan set to high.

“Seeing what Ilia has done in the last three years has been mind-boggling,” 1994 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi said. “I know several of us — Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton — we’ve talked, saying, ‘We have never imagined we would be alive to see a quad axel performed and landed in competition,’ and here comes Ilia, just whipping it off like it’s nothing.'”

It's decidedly something. Whereas the triple axel has a base value of 8.0 points, the quad has a base of 12.5. Throw in the additional points Malinin could earn for the degree of execution and the quad axel gives him a massive scoring advantage.

At last year’s world championships in Boston, he landed it along with each of the other five quad jumps, propelling him to his second straight title with the second-largest margin of victory in its 130-year history.

So why would he ever take it out? Besides the inherent risk, the rest of Malinin's programs are so difficult he doesn't really need it. Kagiyama has a mere four quads planned for his free skate Friday night. So does Siao Him Fa.

“I want him to be a smart competitor,” said Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion. “I know how much it can mean to a skater to have a clean performance in the Olympics, and I really want him to have a clean performance. Yes, technical — as technical as he wants to be. But if one of the quads he aspires to hit, he isn't feeling great that day, I want him to be solid.”

The grandest of finales?

The son of Olympic skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov loves nothing more than to raise the bar, though.

Malinin was among the first to incorporate a backflip into his choreography when its ban was lifted by the International Skating Union last year, for example, and the one he threw down in the team competition Sunday left tennis legend Novak Djokovic in awe.

Malinin even has created a signature jump of his own, a leaping, twirling fan-favorite known as the “raspberry twist.” He named it that because “malina,” from which his last name is derived, quite literally means “raspberry” in Russian.

“When I was younger,” he explained, “I loved to perform, whether it be I’d turn on some random music at home and just start skating a program that I’d do improv to and try doing triples, even though I could barely do doubles. I was really passionate about the performing aspect of skating, and that’s what helps me feel that energy and pressure and almost use it to my advantage.”

Malinin admitted to feeling a different level of pressure at the Olympics in the team event, though. Both of his performances were mediocre by his lofty standards. But he felt much more comfortable during his short program Tuesday night, and it was reflected on the ice, where his score of 108.16 was less than a point off his world-leading mark this season.

Now, Malinin has one more opportunity to perform during the Milan Cortina Olympics on Friday night.

One last chance to throw the quad axel, too.

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

MILAN (AP) — Former world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada will compete in the individual pairs event at the Milan Cortina Olympics after Stellato-Dudek's head injury forced them to withdraw from last weekend's figure skating team event.

“I want to thank everyone for their concern and support. I’ve been working closely with the medical team, and feel ready and excited to compete,” Stellato-Dudek said in a statement Tuesday night. “My priority right now is skating my best.”

Stellato-Dudek was hurt when her head hit the ice during a training session in Quebec on Jan. 30, exactly one week before the opening ceremony of the Winter Games. They withdrew from the team event three days later, and Skate Canada said the U.S.-born Stellato-Dudek had been closely monitored and completed all of the required medical evaluations.

“Athlete health and safety remain our top priority,” Skate Canada said in a statement, “and the decision to compete was made under the guidance of medical professionals. Stellato-Dudek is feeling well and is looking forward to taking the ice.”

The pairs short program at the Milan Cortina Games is Sunday. The free skate is the following night.

The 42-year-old Stellato-Dudek, who was born in the Chicago suburbs, has represented Canada since teaming up with Deschamps before the 2019 season. The three-time Canadian champions won the world title in 2024 and were fifth last year in Boston, and they are considered podium contenders in their first Winter Games together.

Trennt Michaud and Lia Pereira performed both of their pairs programs in the team event for Canada, which finished in fifth.

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MILAN (AP) — The organizing committee for the Milan Cortina Olympics is apologizing for the surface of the podium used at the Milano Ice Skating Arena that caused minor damage to the blades of figure skaters celebrating their team medals last weekend.

Several of the athletes, including Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the gold medal-winning U.S. team, reported nicks and blemishes from the anti-slip surface. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto, whose team took silver, was among those who noticed it right away, skating away from the podium to check on her blades while simultaneously celebrating her medal.

Japan eventually lodged a formal complaint about the abrasive nature of the podium.

The organizers said that they were “taking steps to replace the surface to prevent a reoccurrence," and that blade-sharpening services would be made available along with an additional training session for the U.S., Japanese and bronze medalist Italian teams.

“We also understand that some (National Olympic Committees) have offered their services to the impacted athletes from other countries in a true example of the Olympic spirit,” the committee said, adding that it “apologises for the inconvenience caused and reiterates its commitment to ensuring the best possible conditions for all athletes.”

Skaters typically use freshly sharpened blades as a last resort, because it can take time for them to get worked back in. Instead, they turn to what are called honing stones that they run along the blades to remove any nicks and burrs.

Some wondered whether the blades may have caused a problem for Chock and Bates in the rhythm dance on Monday night, when the favored Americans were beaten by the French couple of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron by a slim margin.

“I think the skates are fine. The blades are good,” Bates said afterward. “We skated great. We felt like it was really strong.”

The next medal ceremony at the Milano Ice Skating Arena was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, following the mixed team relay in short-track speedskating. The next figure skating medal ceremony is on Wednesday night, when Chock and Bates hope to make up their deficit to Beaudry and Cizeron in the free dance and climb onto the top step of a resurfaced podium.

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