Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Ilia Malinin kept his eyes on the ultimate prize Saturday, winning his fourth straight US Figure Skating men’s title with a conservative free skate in the final build-up to his bid for Olympic gold. After an electrifying short program gave him a mammoth lead in St. Louis, the 21-year-old known as “Quad God” performed a relatively modest, by his own standards, three quadruple jumps. His free skate score of 209.78 gave him victory with 324.88 points, more than 57 in front of silver medalist Andrew Torgashev.
“I was coming into this event and I was a little unsure what to do, so I decided not to go for any risks,” said the world champion. “I wanted to play it safe because I know hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have to go again.” Malinin will be the men’s headline act when the US team for next month’s Milan-Cortina Olympics is announced on Sunday. Torgashev also put himself in the running for an Olympic berth, jumping from fifth after the short program to finish second on 267.92.
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Maxim Naumov claimed an emotional bronze, and a potential ticket to the Olympics, less than a year after his parents Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova died in an air crash. They lost their lives in a mid-air collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter in Washington that killed 67, with 28 of the dead being members of the figure skating community. “I gritted my teeth on everything,” Naumov said. “I fought for everything. That determination and resilience is who I am.”
Veteran Jason Brown, third after the short program in his bid to make a third Olympic team 12 years after his first, fell twice in a disappointing free skate and slid to eighth. Three-time and reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates will be hoping their historic ice dance title will be a springboard to a first Olympic medal. The husband-and-wife team’s fifth straight US crown took their overall tally to seven and saw them break out of a tie for most ever with Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
They are looking to cap another stellar season, which they hinted may be their last, by filling the lone gap on their resume in their fourth Olympic Games where they will be among the favourites for ice dance gold. Leading by a wide margin after the short program, they skated an intense flamenco-inspired free dance to an instrumental version of “Paint it Black” that garnered 137.17 points for a winning total of 228.87. Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second on 213.65 and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko took bronze on 206.95.
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