u/sofastsomaybe

Washington Figure Skating Club has this performance on their Facebook in potato quality, but a short while ago, twitter user meispoli uploaded this clip in 720p! So thank you to them. Here is Ilia performing the junior version of his free skate, in costume, with his full technical layout.

When and where: October 3, 2021 in Reston, VA

Ilia's jumps: 4T, 4S, 3A, 3F, 3A+1Eu+3S, 3Lz+2Lo, 3Lz+3T

It's been a while since I've posted a group number. Here's one to live music.

When and where: July 28, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan

Ilia's jumps: 1A (SBS with everyone), 3Lz (SBS with Selevko and Egadze), 4Lz

Who's performing: Ilia Malinin, Kao Miura, Junhwan Cha, Mikhail Shaidorov, Nika Egadze, Aleksandr Selevko

https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/events/eventdetail/isu-cs-lombardia-trophy-2026/?tab=entries_16327&type=15712

That time Ilia wore an actual purple costume.

When and where: March 31, 2024 in Osaka, Japan

Jumps: 3A, 4Lz, 3Lo, 4S (the commentator says he did a 3Lz, but Ilia bamboozled her)

What's notable: Ilia only performed Succession as an exhibition skate two times - at two stops on the SOI 2024 tour. This Osaka performance is the only performance that we have video of. By extension, this is the only video we have of this purple costume. After the retirement of Succession, it was never seen again.

Shoutout to the Ina Bauer at 3:14.

This is the second version of Running I'm posting. The first version I uploaded was Running in its unpolished form at Dreams on Ice, and now I'm sharing Running as a finished product.

When and where: January 25, 2025, in Wichita, Kansas

Jumps: 4F, 3A, 4Lz+3T

What's notable: First and most importantly, this is the one performance of Running where Ilia is wearing the top of the depressed candy cane costume, but not the pants. What happened to his pants (and his Team USA jacket) during this competition is a mystery.

Ilia's score of 114.08 was, at the time, the third highest scoring short program in U.S. Nationals history, right behind a pair of Nathan Chen programs. It would later be also beaten by Ilia's performance of The Lost Crown the following season.

Press conference: Here

Tout l'Univers is a fandom favorite because it has a little something for everyone. It's got big jumps that are timed to musical accents. It's got Ilia yeeting himself all over the ice. It's got an early example of Ilia doing a blade feature in a spin. It's got a bidirectional spin. The figurative high note of the program might be what happens during the literal high note of the music - a long held Ina Bauer.

The most popular version of Tout l'Univers is the version filmed by On Ice Perspectives (for good reason - that lighting and camerawork can't be beat) but I quite like this version from Grand Prix de France as well! It's a shame the stream of this exhibition was nuked off of ISU's youtube due to someone's music triggering the copyright bots.

When and where: November 5, 2023, in Angers, France

Jumps: 4T, 3A, 4Lz

Here's something you don't see every day (or at all, anymore): an exhibition gala at a Junior Grand Prix event. Ilia performed Make It Rain, which was his short program during the 2019-2020 season. New costume, of course - he had definitely outgrown the old one.

When and where: August 21, 2021, in Courchevel, France

Jumps: 4T+2T, 4S, 3Lz

(sorry for the late post today; I took a nap halfway through Ilia's stream)

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With Liza just having competed in her first intermediate competition, let's look back at Ilia's intermediate season. He was 11 years old in this video, and Tatiana and Roman are visible in the background, looking super proud of him.

The name of this competition was elusive to me for a long time since the protocol does not exist anywhere online, but at long last, I was able to identify the rink (SkateNation Plus) and the competition (12th Annual Falling Leaves, hosted by the Richmond Figure Skating Club).

When and where: September 24 or 25, 2016 in Glen Allen, VA

Jumps: 3S+2T, 3T, 2A+2T, 2F, 2Lz+2Lo+2Lo, 2A

What's notable: This is the first season where Ilia had both a short program and a free program, and also the first season where he incorporated triple jumps into his programs.

This performance is not even a year old, but I still consider it a throwback. Anything pre-Milan is a throwback to me. I'm going to be honest: like 75% of my reason for posting this particular video is the costume. Whenever I see this costume, I always stop and stare and wonder how something can be so perfect looking. A Voice V2 is great too, but I do wish V1 got more run.

When and where: October 19, 2025 in Angers, France

Jumps: 4F, 3A, 4Lz, 3Lo, 4Lzq+1Eu+3F, 4T+3T, 4S+3A+SEQ

What's notable: This was Ilia's first clean(ish) skate since Montreal Worlds in 2024. Yes, he got a q on that backloaded lutz combo, but who cares? After a whole season of Vampire which always had visible errors, this performance was a "we are SO back" moment.

Press conference: Here (partial)

It's been six months since that day of despair, so about we watch something joyful today? Ilia debuted this program two months prior at Art on Ice, and he continued using it as his main exhibition program through Worlds, WTT, Stars on Ice, and in Skate America the following season.

When and where: April 16, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan

Jumps: 4T, 4Lz, 4A

Is this the best performance of Vampire? No. Is it the most aesthetically pleasing performance of Vampire? Perhaps. He's wearing my favorite costume. He made a valiant attempt at styling his hair (all of that work was undone the moment he swiped his arm across his head during the starting pose). Since this is probably the least accessible of the Vampire performances in this costume, I'm uploading it here.

Jumps: 4F, 3A, 4Lz, 2Lo, 3Lz, 4T+3T, 4Sq+3A+SEQ

What's notable: This program had the first 4S+3A sequence ever attempted in competition by any skater. Ilia had practiced that combo, but it was not in his planned program content. Presumably, had the rest of the skate been clean, his last combo would have been the 3F+3A sequence he did at Lombardia Trophy.

Alternate footage: USFS uploaded some very nice looking 4K footage to their YouTube channel, but of course, they replaced the audio with generic slop. Not to worry...I've added in the correct audio myself! You can download and watch the 4K footage here on Google Drive.

Press conference: Here

https://usfigureskating.org/feature/2027USChamps

USFS jacked the ticket prices sky high due to exploding popularity of figure skating in America, and they still decide to cut back on the amount of skating that can be watched that weekend.

If USFS does indeed get rid of the Nationals gala this year, I will be very sad. A cool feature of recent US Nationals galas is the fact that they have Jordan Cowan, aka On Ice Perspectives, in the rink with the skaters as they perform. The videography is unmatched.

Jumps: 4A, 3Lz

Who choreographed it: Tommy Steenberg

2025 Lombardia Trophy wasn't the only time that Ilia's performance began with a music mishap! Here is Ilia performing Jealous, his exhibition for the first half of the 2022-2023 season, followed by My Generation, a duet with Daniel Grassl.

When and where: July 30, 2022, in Osaka, Japan

Jumps in Jealous: 2T, 3A

Jumps in My Generation: 3F from Ilia, 3Lo from Grassl, 3Lz from both

Not much to say about this one - it's figure skating history. Ilia entered this free skate sitting in 6th place following what was the worst short program of his senior career - and then he locked in.

When and where: September 14, 2022, in Lake Placid, New York

Jumps: 4A, 4T, 4Lz (F), 4S, 4Lz+1Eu+3S, 3F+3T, 3Lz+3A+SEQ

What's notable: Not only did Ilia land the first quad Axel in figure skating history, he landed it cleanly on his first attempt. This was also his first time attempting five quads in his free skate, including two quad lutzes.

Reactions from r/figureskating: The live discussion thread and the post about Ilia's 4A

In the news: USA Today, The Guardian, CBC Sports/AP, NBC Sports

Future Rain is a program that Ilia had made for Stars on Ice Canada 2024. The version he performed at Stars on Ice had a shorter music cut and a split slide instead of a backflip, and pretty much the only footage from that tour is a few phone recordings (all of which you can find linked on the exhibition masterlist. Fans begged him to bring it back...and he did, half a year later, at Bol on Ice, which thankfully had a professional camera crew.

When and where: January 5, 2025, in Bologna (Casalecchio di Reno), Italy

Jumps: 3F, 3A

Who choreographed it: We tried asking Ilia this in a 2024 stream, but he said that he forgot. 😅

Alternate footage: The multi-camera version

Dreams on Ice is a Japanese tradition at the end of June, in which skaters gather to debut their programs for the new season. 2024 was the first year that they started trying to emulate the feel of a competition - using competition lighting, having the skaters take the ice as warmup groups (a group of senior men, a group of senior women, etc). It was also sadly the last year of them inviting guest skaters from overseas. Ilia was a Dreams on Ice guest skater three years in a row.

When and where: June 29, 2024 in Yokohama, Japan

Jumps: 4F, 3A, 4T+3T

What's notable: This is the world debut of Running! It's technically the third public performance of it (there are four Dreams on Ice shows in total), but it was the first performance broadcast in Japan and watchable worldwide.

If you're a Running appreciator like me, you might notice several differences between what was performed here and the final version of the program which he competed with. First, you will see that he fell on a 4F. He totally forgot how to do that in competition.

Secondly, you will see that his combo here was 4T+3T, not 4Lz+3T. Ilia did try the lutz in the previous day's show, but he fell on it according to reports.

Third, you will notice that he flopped his flying spit spin entry. He somehow managed to make that exact same mistake during the other Dreams on Ice show that was filmed. Don't ask me how. Actually, u/_Exegy_ solved the mystery

Fourth, his other two spins look a little different. His change camel spin at 1:28 used his old catchfoot position. His change combo spin at 2:23 also takes the form of his old spins. It used to be that skaters could to three difficult spin variations in one spin to get three levels, but starting in the 24-25 season, that is no longer the case. All combo spins in competitive versions of Running instead have a blade feature instead of the non-basic position.

Fifth, the choreography at the end of the program has changed. In later versions, he holds the Ina Bauer longer and transitions straight into the solo death spiral.