Ilia Malinin secured his third consecutive world figure skating championship on Saturday afternoon, marking a remarkable comeback just a month after his unexpected Olympic setback. Competing at Prague’s O2 Arena, the 21-year-old American entered the final with a significant lead, having achieved a personal-best score of 111.29 in the short program, which put him over nine points ahead of his competitors.

In the free skate, Malinin delivered an impressive performance, scoring 218.11 and finishing with a total of 329.40 points, well ahead of his nearest rivals, Yumi Kagiyama (306.67) and Shun Sato (288.54).

Known as the Quad God for his remarkable jumping skills, Malinin executed five quadruple jumps, including a quad toe-triple toe combination, while also successfully incorporating a backflip late in his program. Unlike his Olympic performance, where he faced multiple errors, this time he maintained composure, finishing nearly 23 points clear of the next best score.

“I definitely felt very pushed and loved from the crowd,” Malinin expressed after his performance, emphasizing the support he felt throughout.

Just a month prior, Malinin had entered the Olympics as a favorite but fell to eighth place, which he described as one of the biggest upsets in Olympic figure skating. He admitted that the pressure had overwhelmed him, causing him to replay his mistakes repeatedly.

This time, however, he displayed a different mindset from the beginning of the week. In the short program, he attacked his opening quad flip and quad lutz-triple toe combination with determination, earning roaring applause from the audience.

Behind Malinin, Kagiyama, the Olympic silver medalist, achieved a personal-best free skate score to a selection from Puccini’s Turandot but finished second again. Stephen Gogolev from Canada placed fourth (281.04), while Adam Siao Him Fa from France and Aleksandr Selevko from Estonia followed in fifth and sixth, respectively.

With the absence of Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov, Malinin embraced the spotlight and became the first man to win three consecutive world titles since Nathan Chen in 2018, 2019, and 2021. “It was really challenging and really hard,” he stated to the crowd, acknowledging their support in his journey.