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PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MARCH 26: (EDITORS NOTE: Multiple exposures were combined in camera to produce this image.) Ilia Malinin of United States competes in the Men's Short Program during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at O2 Arena on March 26, 2026 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by Joosep Martinson - International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)
International Skating Union via Getty Images
The “Quad God” is on gold medal-watch for the second time in 2026. U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin goes for his third world title on Saturday, March 28, in Prague at the 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.
Malinin enters Saturday’s competition with a sizable lead over second-place Adam Siao Him Fa (France) after earning a personal best in Thursday’s Men’s Short Program competition.
Top Ten Qualifiers to Men’s Free Skate:
- Ilia Malinin (United States): 111.29
- Adam Siao Him Fa (France): 101.85
- Aleksandr Selevko (Estonia): 96.49
- Shun Sato (Japan): 95.84
- Stephen Gogolev (Canada): 94.38
- Yuma Kagiyama (Japan): 93.80
- Andrew Torgashev (United States): 89.07
- Daniel Grassl (Italy): 88.53
- Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland): 88.30
- Jacob Sanchez (United States): 85.15
Like Malinin, Siao Him Fa seeks redemption after a catastrophic free skate in the Milan-Cortina. If the Frenchman can skate cleanly, he poses Malinin’s best challenge for gold in Prague.
Estonian champion Aleksandr Selevko was a surprise star in the short program, but is unlikely to challenge clean skates from Siao Him Fa and Malinin.
Though men’s singles Olympic gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov opted to skip this year’s world championship, the Olympic silver and bronze medalists, Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato, also seek redemption in Prague.
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Sato sits in fourth after a strong short program, while Kagiyama fell to sixth after a fluke error on his Axel jump on Thursday.
With a near ten-point lead, the 21-year-old from Northern Virginia enters the competition at a significant advantage, but if Milan-Cortina taught figure skating fans anything, it’s that anything can happen.
If the “Quad God” can hold onto his lead on Saturday, he’ll become the first American man since 2022 Olympic Champion Nathan Chen to win three-consecutive world titles. He’ll also join an elite club of international skaters to achieve the ‘three peat,’ including Alexei Yagudin, Dick Button and Ulrich Salchow.
A clean skate would also help lessen the blow of his catastrophic Milan-Cortina free skate, which saw the gold medal slip from his grasp. Though Malinin himself touted his Prague push as his “redemption competition,” his focus while in Czechia has been centered around a smaller goal: enjoying the journey.
“I was definitely coming back to prove myself that it (Milan-Cortina) was a one-time thing,” Malinin said after Thursday’s short program. “But now I realize this is much more than just skating. It’s being able to go and enjoy and have fun.”
How To Watch Ilia Malinin Skate
As the top qualifier, the 21-year-old American will skate last. Malinin will follow Siao Him Fa and skate at 11:14 a.m. ET.
After qualifying in seventh and tenth from the short program, Americans Andrew Torgashev and Jacob Sanchez will skate in Group 3, which takes the ice at roughly 8:40 a.m. ET. A full men’s skating schedule for Saturday’s competition (in Central European Standard Time) can be accessed here.
Fans can stream the action live on Peacock, starting at 7:30 a.m. ET and tune in to NBC at 8 p.m. ET for a televised event recap.
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