Figure skating-Malinin leads Skate America short program in season debut

American Ilia Malinin shrugged off a ​minor error to lead the men's short ​program at Skate America in ‌Everett, Washington, ​on Friday in his first competition since winning a third world title in March. The 21-year-old scored 96.74 points to open a ‌5.45-point advantage over Japan's Sota Yamamoto, while Mexico's Donovan Carrillo sat third with 86.49 points heading into Saturday's free skate.

Malinin landed a quadruple flip and a triple Axel but made a mistake on ‌his quadruple Lutz, putting a hand down on the ice and managing only a double ‌toe-loop combination. The error proved costly only on paper as the American's superior technical score kept him comfortably clear of the field.

"I think coming into the first competition, my goal was just to feel out the program, how ⁠it feels ​on the ice in ⁠front of the crowd," Malinin said. "I definitely felt a lot of support behind that short program. I feel like ⁠as the season goes on, this short program is going to be really easy to skate."

The three-time ​world champion began his campaign directly on the Grand Prix circuit after opting against ⁠competing at a lower-level event earlier in the season. Malinin enters the new campaign looking to move on from a dramatic ⁠2025-26 ​season in which his 14-event winning streak came to an end at the Winter Olympics, where he finished eighth overall in the singles competition.

The disappointment proved short-lived, however, as ⁠he rebounded weeks later in Prague to secure a third successive world title. After Skate America, Malinin ⁠is scheduled to compete ⁠at the NHK Trophy, where he will bid to secure a place at December's Grand Prix Final, an event he has won in ‌each of the ‌last three seasons.