American Ilia Malinin on Saturday returned to the pinnacle of his sport as he skated to a third world title and shrugged off the shock of an eighth-place finish at last month’s Olympics.
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France added their first world ice dance title to last month’s Olympic gold to cap a dream debut season.
The 21-year-old Malinin, who arrived in Prague carrying the weight of a collapse that cost him Olympic gold and intent on redemption, scored 218.11 points for a free program that included five quadruple jumps, and 329.40 points overall.
Photo: EPA
“I definitely felt very pushed and loved from the crowd,” Malinin said. “Every single element I did, they were all behind me and I felt that the whole way through my program. My expectation was to leave the long program in one piece, and I definitely think that happened.”
Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan climbed from sixth after the short program to finish second with 306.67 after his elegant and flawless free skate to Puccini’s Turandot.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, the Olympic champion in Milan, did not compete in Prague.
Malinin carried a commanding lead into the final at Prague’s O2 Arena after a personal-best score of 111.29 in the short program put the “Quad God” more than nine points clear.
His free program — entitled The Voice and featuring his own voiceover — fell short of his massive world-record score of 238.24 at the Grand Prix Final in December, when he performed seven quad jumps, including the quad Axel, a jump only he has landed in competition.
It was a huge improvement of almost 62 points from Milan.
Malinin tripled the quad Axel, the jump that started the unravelling of his free program at the Olympics, but his five quads were enough to remind the sport why he remains its most formidable force.
“It was really challenging and really hard,” he told the crowd. “But with you guys I was able to make it through.”
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, six-point leaders after the short dance, scored 138.07 points for their elegant and lyrical free dance to the soundtrack of the movie The Whale, and 230.81 points overall.
“It felt amazing. It was a suspended moment with all of you, and it’s such a special feeling to feel all of your eyes and your energy on what we created, so thank you so much,” Cizeron told the audience.
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