Ilia Malinin tops World Figure Skating Championships short program with historic skate
His closest rival, Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, nearly skated a personal best as he bids for his first global title after previous Olympic and world silver medals.
Malinin tallied 110.41 points, edging Kagiyama by 3.32 going into Saturday's free skate (8 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock).
Only Olympic gold medalists Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu have scored higher in a short program than Malinin did Thursday, according to skatingscores.com.
FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Malinin, who has won his last eight competitions dating to December 2023, landed a quadruple flip, triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination. He usually only attempts his trademark quad Axel in the free skate.
Every American men's singles skater who won the world title the year before the Olympics went on to win Olympic gold the following year: Dick Button (1951), Hayes Alan Jenkins (1955), David Jenkins (1959), Scott Hamilton (1983), Evan Lysacek (2009) and Nathan Chen (2021).
Fellow Americans Andrew Torgashev and Jason Brown sit eighth and 12th, respectively, after their highest-scoring short programs of the international season.
Worlds continue later Thursday with the pairs' free skate, live on Peacock starting at 6:15 p.m. ET and USA Network at 8.
Philip Hersh,
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