Ilia Malinin Fan Thread!

Satomi Ito’s FS costume for Ilia (being retired after 3 competitions, apparently):

From a live Q&A on Twitch in late September:
Ilia revealed that his 2nd costume of "I'm Not a Vampire" is his favorite costume so far. There will no blood on the shirt, and the sleeves will be tight instead of puffy (version 1).

The "very sparkly" costume will be in dark midnight purple. He will the debut it this GPF.
 
Ugh. Just because I ran into the stupidity that is Wagner's commentary (in her podcast, apparently, instead of anything official, thank god), I just want to say, I don't think Ilia is a 6 to Kagiyama's 9. On skating skills there's a noticeable gap, without a doubt, but I don't think he's that much worse a performer (he looks less robotic to me, frankly), and in terms of choreography, his long program just stands out more than Kagiyama's and is more interesting to me.

Kagiyama made a mistake by picking Flamenco, for me. It will matter zero to judges, but his very sloppy movement quality just looks plain bad when doing the few dance moves Nichol crammed into that program, and the SP is just a snoozefest.

Not that Wagner will understand any of that when she spent her career looking like she didn't know music was playing in the background or what a rotated jump looks like, but anyway.
 
Ilia's currently known show schedule:

Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer® at Snoopy's Home Ice in Santa Rosa, CA - Celebration Ice Show, emceed by Scott Hamilton
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 7:30-9:00 pm Pacific time - tickets:

Xtreme Ice World Premiere, Friday, November 15, 7-9 pm Eastern at the Ion International Training Center in Leesburg, VA:

Vail Ice Spectacular, Dobson Ice Arena in Vail, CO: https://vailskatefest.com/
December 22nd | 6:30 pm Mountain time
Dec. 23rd | 6:30 pm
Tickets: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/icespectacular/7065

Bol On Ice, Sunday, January 5, 2025, Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna), Italy
Tickets: https://www.ticketone.it/artist/bol-on-ice/

Art on Ice 2025 tour in Switzerland - February 6-9 in Zurich; Feb. 11-12 in Fribourg; Feb. 14-15 in Davos: https://www.artonice.com/en/program/
 
Ilia is one of the main characters in Colantotte's new commercial and he looks cool.

 
I still don't understand exactly what this "medical device" necklace does, and why are only male skaters obsessed with it? 😆 It's a nice commercial though.

Based on his Instagram stories, it looks like Ilia went down to Irvine/SoCal area, presumably to train, after his show in Santa Rosa. Nice to have this chunk of time to work on his programs more with Rafael and Shae-Lynn if so.
 
Today ISU YouTube channel did upload the recent Ted Barton interview with Ilia.
Agree that ISU should upload Ted's interview with Ilia's parents/coaches too.
Just saw that Barton’s 8-minute interview with Ilia’s parents was uploaded by the ISU on Nov. 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s604NxWrX8

And here’s the ISU’s short interview (Oct. 27 in Halifax) with Ilia after he qualified for the Final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxjCpo-rkms
Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer® at Snoopy's Home Ice in Santa Rosa, CA - Celebration Ice Show, emceed by Scott Hamilton
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Ilia’s performance to “Hope” by NF (on a small ice surface), introduced by Scott Hamilton, was uploaded to the Silicon Valley Ice Skating Association’s channel yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPIx_d-3amU
 
Noooo, I like the original ending much more. I don't like backflips unless it makes sense with the music or choreography, and this one doesn't fit IMO. I'm gonna hope that this was just for the Worlds promo.

But wow, he's had a lot of traveling in these last three weeks. Wasn't he just in Irvine yesterday?
 
2 articles for Grand Prix Final week:

Ilia Malinin plans his quadruple Axel's return for Grand Prix Final as he settles into world champion spotlight by Nick McCarvel (Dec. 2, 2024): https://olympics.com/en/news/ilia-m...xel-grand-prix-final-world-champion-spotlight
Excerpt:
As he did last year during the Grand Prix Series, Malinin has removed his quad Axel from competition, but said the jump remains a part of his training regimen - and he plans to compete it this weekend in Grenoble.
"Yes, we're hoping to see the quad Axel at the Final," he confirmed. "But right now, in this current stage, it's a little tricky for me. It's kind of like a 50/50 sometimes, so I think I just need to go back and just practise a little more to make sure I can get the technical ability and that muscle memory back."

USFS article by Darci Miller (Dec. 2; same articlre also is posted in USFS' Fan Zone) - Ilia Malinin Managing Pressure, Pushing Boundaries: https://www.usfigureskating.org/news/article/ilia-malinin-managing-pressure-pushing-boundaries
 
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On Ice Perspectives' Jordan Cowan also posted the full video (6 mins.) on his YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM_PUxgJ288

Screen shot of Sarah's Instagram story post: https://x.com/TheIliaSociety/status/1863584208150532313

ETA:
Happy 20th birthday, Ilia!

Birthday messages from skating friends, compiled by a fan IG account: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDEwfz6u1cL/?igsh=MWZ0bTRmbzQwbTA1eA==
Video messages are from: Junhwan Cha, Elizabeth Tkachenko/Alexei Kiliakov, Lukas Britschgi, Danny O'Shea, Madison Chock/Evan Bates, Daniel Grassl, Lucrezia Beccari, Ivan Righini, Nika Egadze(?), Deanna & Max, Aleksandr & Mihhail Selevko, Loena Hendrickx.
 
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I think the LP has loads of potential in terms of performance. It's something rather unique in this field of boring "top" men with "classic" skating and musicality (ie non-existent), the angst and the arrogance that only he can probably produce satisfactorily in this field. I hope he skates it well. Some of the moments in the steps/choreo sequence are so amazingly explosive.
 
Those reporters seemed like they were fan-girling over Ilia!
Not really. He was being coy at least a couple of different times. The interactions and response from the reporters reminded me a lot of MLB/NBA locker room interviews/remarks - cordial, friendly because figure skating is their beat and they've established a professional rapport.
 

2024 ISU Grand Prix Final winner's interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6n0zoquziI

Re-posting here from the U.S. Men's news thread:
Ilia has a feature with his picture in The NY Times online this morning. Great to see a U.S. figure skater getting some national press coverage.
Ilia Malinin, U.S. figure skating’s new star, caps a perfect year and eyes Olympic glory by Zack Pierce (Dec. 7, 2024):
 
Ilia's new official website has been launched: https://iliamalininqg.com/

MANAGEMENT:
Xtreme Ice
Ari Zakarian

MARKETING / SPONSORSHIP (new):
Shade Global https://shadeglobal.com/about/
Sheryl Shade

His upcoming schedule: https://iliamalininqg.com/?page_id=84
Vail Skating Festival Exhibition Vail, Colorado, USA December 22 – 23, 2024
2025 Bol on Ice Exhibition Casalecchio Di Reno, Italy January 5, 2025
2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships Wichita, Kansas, USA January 20 -26, 2025
2025 Art on Ice Exhibition Zurich, Switzerland February 6 – 9, 2025
2025 Art on Ice Exhibition Fribourg, Switzerland February 11 – 12, 2025
2025 Art on Ice Davos, Switzerland February 14 – 15, 2025
2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships (if selected) Boston, Massachusetts, USA March 25 – 30, 2025
 
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