Ilia Malinin lands 4 quads — and a backflip — to win his third straight Skate America title

World champion Ilia Malinin won Skate America on Sunday for the third consecutive year, altering his free skate on the fly after an early mistake and punctuating the program with a backflip that had been banned in competition until this season.

The two-time and reigning U.S. champion scored 290.12 points to finish ahead of Kevin Aymoz of France, whose career-best free skate left him with 282.88 points and earned a standing ovation inside Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas.

Kao Miura of Japan, who was second after his short program, finished third with 278.67 points.

“I was really motivated by Kevin’s skate,” said Malinin, the early favorite for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “It really excited me and I was so happy for him. It pushed me to really just get going to try to skate that program, and of course it wasn’t what I wanted today. So after the few mistakes, I just tried to regroup and to make a strategy of what I have to do.”